I was reading some blogs today and stumbled across the blog of an old client who is proudly using another photographer and is “extremely” happy with them. (no this is not one of my amazing wedding clients… somehow my wedding clients end up being clients for life and I truly have the BEST bond with them!!!… LOVE u guys!) You know that really got me to thinking. I spent how many hours of my life shooting, proofing, editing, delivering, bending over backward for this particular set of people and its totally their prerogative to use another photographer- kudos to you for finding someone cheaper, half the quality, half the price who you are willing to settle for- but what would that time have been WORTH to me? If I could have all those hours back… for what I was paid was it WORTH it? Absolutely not. If knew then what I know now. I would not trade those hours of my life for the money that I earned. It just isn’t worth it.
I have never been the person who has wanted to be the “stay at home mom”. I am too much of a busy body. I need to work and feel productive doing something outside my house. My house feels like a pit to me… dishes, while accomplished, will need to be accomplished again tomorrow. Same with laundry. For me… photography is an outlet more than a money maker. Basically my business breaks even each year to be perfectly honest. I spent the first 5 years of the business putting more into it than I was getting out because I loved it and I vowed that if I ever got to the point where I did not LOVE it I would quit. Well I absolutely love every single minute of shooting weddings, bridals, and engagements. I love every single long hour of proofing. I love every bead of sweat that I sweat on the 100 degree July wedding days. I love the 1000 mg of Tylenol that I need to get out of bed the next day and I love my wedding clients more than they will ever know.
As for the rest… I could take them or leave them (with the exception of my few… and they know who they are!). As Troy and I are making a lot of life decisions right now I am strongly considering shutting down the “family and babies” portion of my business and going exclusively weddings. I would CRY if I had to give up weddings so I am not ever planning to do that… but I think I may stop taking NEW baby clients. My remaining baby clients I will continue to enjoy watching grow their families and call it a day because it snot the clients themselves… its me. My heart is not in it anymore. MY babies and MY family mean more to me than a $150 session fee in my pocket.
But back to the subject at hand. Sometimes I believe that we devalue our time. Everyone else around us is the #1 culprit at making us feel that we are not worth our time. IF you were told you only had ONE hour left in your life… how would you spend that hour? What would you want to do with that hour? How much would it be worth to you to pay to extend your life another hour or three? THAT is how much an hour is worth to you on a daily basis. You should remember that each day. Each minute that we waste on trivial things, is an hour that we will never get back. It is an hour that could have been spent listening to our child’s Lego Power Miner’s video, “Florida Chicken” (this is what Ross affectionately calls his favorite stuffed animal which happens to be a flamingo) story or “Princess Dance with Cinderella” song. It’s the minutes of our life spent yelling at insane drivers or being frustrated over stupid things that bleed us of our humanity. Its all those times when you get to the end of the day and say… where did it go. The more my brain is stressed out, the more I realized that my minutes and hours are precious. I take FULL advantage of them. I treasure them in ways I cannot explain. I pray for as many lucid and pain free ones as I can get and know that I may not get what I pray for. For me… an hour is just too valuable to give away to just anyone. If you are one of the select few whom I have given hours of my life to… feel privileged. If you don’t feel privileged… you need to re-evaluate.
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Our time is worth a lot and I understand where you are coming from. My husband is a real estate broker and it peeves me to no end when he is working with someone and they turn around and make an offer on a house with someone else because that realtor offered a rebate. Sure they can because they did NOTHING to earn that business. They did not drive the customers around, spend countless hours on the phone etc.
After my bout with cancer I decided that my time was worth more and took a pay cut and another job to be closer to home. now 3 years later they are moving this operations back to where I was 3 years ago. Unfortunately in this economy, employers can say if you don’t like it to leave because someone else will do the commute for the job.
Hey Amber.. I never take time to comment because I get so sidetracked, but I DO read up on you all the time. The coupon posts are GREAT by the way!
I loved this post. I totally agree that we need to all reevaluate our time. Life is too short to waste even a moment doing something we don’t enjoy. The one pet peeve I have is negativity. You, like I try to be, are positive and look at the BIG picture.
I love the idea of letting my dishes sit a little longer, the laundry will wait til’ tomorrow.. I’m going to play with my kids because their time is more valuable.
I try to only blog/do chores/work when my kids are napping, or asleep at night. With that said, I think it is also important to spend time for ME, which I need to work on. How about you??
I got sidetracked again and had to close up the computer… but I’m back to say that I am PRAYING for you!!!
Amen Amber! I think for many of us just stopping something sometimes feels like a “failure” and we don’t want to be that statistic. At least that is how it feels to me. Our families, our lives ARE what is most important. It’s taken me so long to completely figure that out, and I’m still working on it. I know what is important, but getting to where my life reflects my priorities is tougher.
I’m praying for your family.