Tag: Otto von Munchow

Replied to Break the Block by Otto von Münchow (In Flow with Otto)
Go walk the dog, go pick every bit of trash on the street outside your home, go walk the dog again, buy a colouring book and colour, go bake a peach cobbler, go paint some pebbles with bright colours and put them in a pile. You may think it’s procrastination, but—with the right intention—it isn’t, it’s motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.
Otto, I’m in a photography drought right now. I have a camera. I have a lens. But I just dont’t feel motivated to pick it up and create something. I think part of my apathy is in not liking the combination of lens and camera but mostly I’m just out of the zone. Hopefully, this blog post will have me thinking about other things I can do. Something that leads me back to my creative space.

What you definitely should not do is stop doing something.

Bookmarked Are You Lucky? by Otto von Münchow (In Flow with Otto)
This may all sound very good. However, when you stand in the middle of period when nothing seems to work out, it’s not easy to keep expecting things to change to the better. It’s much easier to give up. I know, I have been there myself. Some time ago, I had put in a lot of effort, money and time into preparing a project that everybody told me was going to be a success. I was selling the idea for the project to a big national institution in hope they would finance it, in fact they had asked me to propose the project. The people at the institution were all positive and made me feel like it was only a formality before the project would be accepted. But, when it came down to the final decision, my project was turned down. Instead, money was given to another project that seemed to have nothing about it at all. Later on, I heard that it came down to connections. The person behind the project that “won” knew the people on the board of the institution. It was a devastating blow to my self-esteem. I was about to give up.
 Aperture ƒ/1.8  Camera NIKON D40  Captured 14 March, 2010  Focal length 35mm  ISO 200  Shutter speed 1/250s 

Maybe. Or maybe lucky people just got “lucky”. I think Otto’s story points out that sometimes hard work and dedication are not enough. Sometimes luck means knowing or meeting the right person. Success lies in knowing when luck is about to strike and seize it.