Community, Coaching, and Mindfulness

My last few posts have been about, in one way or another, how to navigate the parade of horribles we are living through. And if you don’t think things are horrible right now, you likely lack a moral compass and/or empathy. 

But I digress.

This month I’m focusing on something not explicitly tied to All The Things happening right now. Instead, I want to give an update on some progress I’m making on my goals related to photography, something I’ve written about before.  

For me, this work brings together a few things that really excite me. First is photography itself. There is something very grounding yet energizing for me to be outside with my camera catching the interesting and beautiful things that surround me in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where I have lived full-time since about mid-2019. 

Sun setting over Provincetown and Provincetown Harbor. January 2025.

Second is mindfulness and the acts of meditation and journaling. I’ve done both regularly for most of my adult life, and they are places where I find clarity and inspiration–and where I process my highs and lows and get to a place of clarity and acceptance. 

Third is planning and goal setting. I love a good strategic plan, and I love to help nonprofit leaders create and implement them. On a personal level, for the past several years I’ve set goals for myself that help me get clear what I want to accomplish with my time, and by when. 

Late last year, at the recommendation of my friend Igor Volsky, I started reading Mind Magic, which is about the neuroscience of manifestation (i.e., about the science of brain function and chemistry; this isn’t about a visioning board, but maybe that will work for you and who am I to judge!). This book helped me to meditate and journal differently–to really make myself, in my mind, live out what it would mean to accomplish a given goal. 

The book is obviously much more thorough than my summary here, but it basically helped me feel what it would be like if I accomplished my goals. That feeling helped my brain focus on achieving my goals, mainly by helping me to make choices that were in service of them.

For example, some of my photography goals were to make gallery contacts in towns outside of Provincetown and to deepen and expand my skills. Early in the year I learned about a gallery owner and photographer a few towns away who coaches, mentors, and trains more junior photographers, pulling them into a cohort that culminates in a group show at his gallery. 

Honestly I had known about him–and his programming–for a few years, and always meant to get in touch. But I never did. The thought would enter my head and then quickly get lost in the noise of the day and my to-do list.

With my goals clearly in my mind–viscerally so–I was prompted to take action and actually reach out to him. He and I are now working together one-on-one in a coaching relationship, and I’ll join the next cohort later this year. I’m learning a lot, and pushing myself in ways I’d never do on my own. It is humbling and also fills me with gratitude–both that I took action and that I have the time and financial resources to do so. 

Overall I’m learning that the things we want to have, do, or accomplish usually don’t just fall into our laps (well, maybe they do if you or your parents are wildly wealthy). You need to have goals and focus and a belief in yourself to make progress toward what you want. Most of all, you need people who believe in and can support you. I would not be making the progress I am without Igor suggesting the book (and the fact that he is always happy to talk about mindfulness with me!), or Steve at the gallery helping me to grow, or my partners supporting my photography work, or my 12 fellow photographers who make up the Provincetown Photography Collective, of which I am a founding member. 

That all these elements and humans came together and helped me to do and be better is a real gift, especially in the face of so much darkness in the world.