Choosing joy in life and business
“Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home. It’s your responsibility to love it or change it. ~Chuck Palahniuk
I choose joy.
Not happiness but joy.
Happiness demands a certain outcome; it is result driven. And in this day and time, I find myself on the unhappy side when the results found in reality are not what I had imagined they would be in my mind.
Joy, on the other hand, is not a response to a result but a constant motion. Think about that. It’s not the conclusion but what happens while we’re on the way to that end. Each moment, we’re excited to be at that exact spot. It’s doing what we were put on this earth to do and being thankful for what we have and what we are allowed to do. And if we follow this path, we become surprised at just how joyful life has and will become when we don’t count on the end result to make or break us.
Full disclosure. There’s a little YouTube video with Matthew McConaughey preaching these words and many more. I’ve watched and listened and absorbed these words at least three dozen times in the last week. I found inspiration on the internet—amazing.
And this joy that I strive for daily is the very reason Len and I took the leap into wedding photography three years ago. For the remainder of our lives, we want to surround ourselves with pure joy, the kind that makes you giddy and squeal; and by nature of our proximity, we, in turn, soak up all the delight. And what prompts that type of euphoria? Why love, of course.
I know this sounds crazy, but joy has driven our business model. We have both spent the better part of our lives working for others, building their businesses, doing things their way, and padding their pockets. Not that what we’ve done hasn’t made us better people, it has. But we found ourselves each evening, sitting on our front porch lamenting about the road ahead.
So, we decided to change our narrative.
I can see many of you shaking your head as to why in the world anyone would want to deal with all that drama on a wedding day. I see you! Yes, I admit, there’s drama, but there’s also this: a father bursting into tears as he sees his baby girl in the wedding dress of her dreams, a groom holding his bride so tightly that you wonder if he’ll let go, a 95-year-old grandmother traveling from Cuba to witness her granddaughter's wedding, family members who haven’t spoken in years embracing and setting aside the past, bridesmaids locking down their dressing area to safeguard their department-issued glocks, and me, attempting to focus when all I can see through the lens are tears.
My only regret? I hadn’t discovered this joy sooner.
So, for the next few years, Len and I will meet brides and grooms on their day of choice, and after a few hugs and tears, we’ll tell their story so that one day years from now, they will remember a day when they chose joy.
