NextGen Know-How: Beware of compare
Don’t fall into the trap of comparing your career progression to the successes of others. Here’s how to tame your inner critic.
A couple of weeks ago, I had professional business photos taken at my home. I always dread photos because I am not a natural smiler. Even when I was a kid, when I posed for photos, I didn’t look natural—I always had a fake, forced smile.
Typically, even as an adult, it takes the photographer fifty or more photos to capture a more natural smile from me. (Wine helps too. Watch this video for my thoughts from immediately after the shoot.)
I posted on Facebook about my dislike of getting photos taken, and several of my friends commented that I always look great in photos. The point is, I only post the photos that look natural. No one else gets to see the back end of the photo shoot—the countless poses and angles and shots the photographer took. You only see what made it onto my website or Facebook page. There were over sixty photos from the recent shoot, and only a handful were decent enough to share with the world. My friends saw the “front stage”—the one good photo that made the cut, not the backstage—the two-hour photo shoot of awkward poses and fake smiles.
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