You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming

A tip from my buddy Heraclitus: We are constantly in a state of becoming; an endless state of flux in which we are constantly changing, evolving, and becoming more (and less) at the same time.

Flux

Every moment you are becoming something– something else.

For example, consider inside your body (right now), all the trillions of molecular processes happening now. The proteins being created, consumed, and used.

Your intellect is constantly evolving and changing. Everyday you have different impressions, and different visual/audio/spatial stimuli.

In life, I think this notion of ‘improvement’ is silly. You don’t got anything you need to “improve”.

If you think that you need to ‘improve’ something in your life, it is somehow signaling to yourself that you feel deficient in something. But what do you lack? Nothing.

And– do you need to become anything or anyone else besides yourself?

State of becoming in photography

I very much like this idea in photography and art; we are constantly in a state of becoming. We are constantly changing how we see the world, how we make photos, and whatever we find interesting.

We are constantly changing our tools, our processing methods, and our own visual acuity is in flux — some things become brighter in our eyes, some things more dim. We are becoming both more near-sighted and far-sighted at the same time.

Thus the secret in photography is this:

Don’t seek to ‘improve’ your photography. Just keep shooting! By continuing to shoot, you’re naturally going to change, evolve, and become more as a photographer.

“You never step into the same river twice” – Heraclitus

What is so exciting in photography is this:

No two scenes are ever alike.

Also, even if the two scenes were exactly alike, YOU’RE NOT EXACTLY ALIKE! Today you’re a totally different person than you were yesterday. And tomorrow you will be a different person from who you are today.

So realize this fact:

In life, both others and ourselves are constantly changing.

Also,

The world is constantly changing, and so are we.

To seek stasis (stability) is wrong. Instead, we should seek to keep moving (the rolling stone gathers no moss), and also we should strive to always be “onto the next one”.

To never stop striving, to never stop aspiring, and to never stop hustling.