After a magnificent and enjoyable holiday in Italy, visiting museums, churches, and walking in nature (with over 1,500 pictures taken, which can be crystallised in different future posts) I return with my first blog about the networking event I attended this week.
I started working again this past Tuesday; however, my short week was packed with activities. I had three networking events, one in-person meeting with a client, and many emails and enquiries to respond to. I also made time to do my weekly volunteering at my daughter’s school.
But it was the networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect, that resonated with my belief in self-improvement.
Members of Women Connect with Anurag Rai. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
Networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
Many people, as soon as they know that I am a photographer, say that they are not photogenic or that they hate being photographed.
The issue is that when we express that we are not good at something, we start to believe that statement, and action follows. For Anurag Rai, action creates identity. You are not going to magically become confident in front of the camera. Confidence is built through the experience of being, for example, photographed. And I have seen this over my 10 years of experience as a photographer.
In my experience capturing portraits, people who strongly believe they look terrible in pictures, with my guidance in posing and styling, and being photographed with good lighting, change their perception, energy, and mindset about themselves.
Networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
Networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
The Role of Self-Talk in Personal Change
Self-talk plays an important role in this process, as Anurag Rai explains.
If your internal voice says:
“I can’t do this,”
you are less likely to act.
But if you shift it slightly to:
“I’m not good at this yet, but I can try,” or in my case, “I am working on it,”
So you create space for action. That action creates evidence, and that evidence challenges the old identity. Over time, the old reality changes to the new one.
Networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
Networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
We often think we need to become someone else before we act differently. But we become that person because we act differently. Therefore, you don’t need to wait for a new identity. You build it little by little, through what you do.
I celebrate that I went to this talk, as I am an enthusiast of this topic, and I wanted to share it with you in my first blog after the Easter break.
Thank you for reading.
Networking presentation by Anurag Rai, organised by Women Connect. Image: All rights reserved © Leticia Gaidon Bradford Photography
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