Back in 2015, I had a short-lived stint on Snapchat for my business. As I tried to immerse myself in the app to understand the type of content I should serve my audience, I followed popular accounts. At the time, the most-followed accounts were Kylie Jenner and DJ Khaled.

DJ Khalid is considered a millennial thought leader who popularized the phrase “Congratulations, you played yourself.” I watched this man’s SnapChats every day for months and yet couldn’t understand what he meant by that phrase.

Am I stupid?

The more time I spent following him and the more time I spent mentoring other photographers, the better I understood the phrase. For me, it was easier to spot this toxic trait in other people at first. Eventually, I obtained enough self-awareness to identify how I was “playing myself,” too.

Here is the Urban Dictionary definition:

The more photographers that I have mentored, the more clearly I’ve seen that the main way we “play ourselves” in this industry is with limiting beliefs.

A limiting belief is a state of mind, conviction, or belief that you think to be true that limits you in some way. In the simplest form, it is saying to yourself “I can’t do that” or “that’s impossible.” We stand in our own way by simply not believing we can do something… so we don’t try. The thoughts we think in our head are far and away the most common way we act in opposition to our own self-interest.

Take a step back and question your thoughts.

Thoughts are not facts.

I’ll say it again. Thoughts are not facts.

Over the course of your life, no one has lied more to you than you have.

Be skeptical. Treat your thoughts like hypotheses, not truths.

Catch your thoughts and label them as a LIE if they are one. A verse that helped me tremendously with this was 2 Corinthians 10:5 when it tells us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Taking your thoughts captive simply means gaining control over what you think about yourself and life.

Let’s take an example:

If I have the thought “XYZ photographer is so much better than me, I should just quit”

First, since I could easily build evidence in support of this thought, I catch the thought and don’t proceed to spiral downward in agreement with it.

Second, I label this thought as a LIE with convincing arguments. “Better” is subjective. Art is subjective. He or she has their clients who book them for their artwork, and I have mine who have booked me for my own talent and aesthetic. Furthermore, God told me to start this business so until He tells me to shut it down, I am not going to quit.

We can challenge our thoughts by considering the evidence supporting our thoughts and the evidence against them.

Another example I think often is:

“The market is too saturated, it can’t support me”

First, it is very easy for me to support the evidence of this thought because I can name you 15 equine photographers in close proximity to me. I have to catch the thought so that I don’t proceed to spiral downward in agreement with it.

Second, I label this thought as a LIE with convincing arguments. Once again, God told me to start this business. I will trust wholly that He will provide me with the exact clients that I need. I pray that He hand selects every single person with who I come in contact to advance His Kingdom. He is a God of abundance and He alone is my provider. By trusting that God placed me here for a reason – and that He can bring me the clients I need to sustain this business – I eliminate the limiting belief that there is no room for me.

Stay tuned for more posts on this subject coming soon!