Every once in a while you gotta shake things up.

But you need to be careful. Whenever I’ve thrown the proverbial “grenade in the tool shed” I am aware of some key influences, such as:

• what is the worse thing that can happen?
• can I work with that situation, or the unknown if that’s the case ( we can’t know the unknown, so we need to be ok with that fact)
• will things possibly be better in the long run?
• why? why am I doing this….

And more.

Let me explain a little more what I mean by this weird sounding metaphor. Throwing a grenade in the tools shed means doing something in your life that is drastic, seemingly extreme, bold and very disruptive.

I’m comfortable with this idea. Many are not.

I’ve done this when I’ve felt things were stale, tired, old, rusty and in need of change.

AND, I also felt that it would work out in the end. However, again, this is not for everyone or the faint of heart.

You don’t do this for the sake of doing this. Like throwing all your chips on the table and gambling it all on a roll of the dice.

You need to have some idea of where you’re going AND you need to feel very good about your ability to be adaptive.

This concept came to me five years ago, when I was 55 years old and felt ready for a change. I was standing in my kitchen in our dream home. I looked across my spacious open concept home.

And I asked myself: “Do we really need 3 living rooms? Really?”

And that started it all. Within that year we sold our beautiful home and home studio (at a nice profit I might add. Otherwise I might have waited for the market to change. More on this later)

We moved into an apartment. We rented an office at a local work share place.
Plus I got rid of about 80% of our earthly possessions. Plus our daughter moved out to attend university a million miles away.

Nothing was the same anymore.

I felt better. Lighter. Excited and ready to take on the challenges that my new circumstances we’re forcing us into. I still can’t believe my wife just goes along with my insanity.

(I always said I married the right person when I asked her out on our first date, on my motorcycle. She smiled, her eyes light up, she was on board.)

Photography was always to be a thing. Families, weddings, fairy day promos and more. Oddly enough, we had our best year ever. Go figure.

AND, we spent 6 weeks in Costa Rica that winter. 3 months the next.

I still recall however the anxieties. The last day we owned our home, I made a few more last minute, late night trips to clear out any small items, give it a sweep and lock the door forever.

It was January. Snow and cold everywhere. Very depressing.

We were heading out to Costa Rica in a few days. Like I said, everything changed.

I crawled into bed beside my sleeping wife, in our new two bedroom apt, and started having an existential crisis.

“What the fuck did I just do?” bounced around in my head.

I started panicking. This was not like me. Me, who’s up for anything, and believes in the power of commitment, goals and having a positive colorful vision to urge me forward.

More on this and how we changed things up and coped, all while running a photography studio. Stay tuned…

Pura Vida!
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

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