{"id":1012,"date":"2018-10-02T11:55:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T16:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markgunterphotography.com\/abo\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2018-09-30T18:39:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T23:39:52","slug":"building-blocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markgunterphotography.com\/abo\/building-blocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The past month has been one huge distraction after another. Much of what I have been building for myself since 2000 has been threatened in one form or another. To say it has been stressful would be an understatement. On the other hand, at it&#8217;s worst, September was a relative nuisance compared to what many around me are forced to deal with daily. Still, I am continuing to do some serious evaluation. &#8220;What now?&#8221; and &#8220;Where next?&#8221; are still overwhelming questions on my mind. As October begins, I am beginning anew in several ways. Today, I want to focus on the building blocks that will lead me forward.<\/p>\n<p>I have been pushing myself professionally. I have chased down certification and challenged myself in multiple image competitions. My efforts to improve my photography continue. They always will. That is who I am. Meanwhile, the cheese moved at my day job and I find myself in the midst of an unexpected pivot. Every day of September was a struggle to stay on top of blog posts and social media.For a part-time photographer, these shifts have been rough.<\/p>\n<p>My family spent a lot of money repairing vehicles in the last week alone. This, along with the usual domestic trials and tribulations was equally helpful in making September a success. Sarcasm aside, it has been a rough month. I&#8217;ll take it, so long as it doesn&#8217;t become the norm.\u00a0 As much as I dislike change, ultimately, things are still leaning positive.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back at <a href=\"https:\/\/markgunterphotography.com\/abo\/challenge-ahead-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my goals for 2018<\/a>, I am reminded just how far I&#8217;ve come. I challenged myself with several building blocks of success. Entering three image competitions and earning professional credentials fulfill a few of these. Many of the remaining items need attention, especially after this &#8220;rough patch&#8221; I have been experiencing.<\/p>\n<p>The great thing about building blocks is that they are always present. I expect this month to be full of challenges. My immediate goal is to not step on one of those building blocks with bare feet.<\/p>\n<p>For those of you who are also small business owners, how do you deal with unexpected diversity? When something occurs outside of your business that threatens to derail things, how do you make it work?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The past month has been one huge distraction after another. Much of what I have been building for myself since&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","wpcat-12-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Building Blocks &#8226; Anything But Ordinary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A rough month helps demonstrate how my self-established building blocks have been misplaced in the larger scheme of things.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/markgunterphotography.com\/abo\/building-blocks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building Blocks &#8226; 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