Finding your purpose is a life-long ambition and that purpose is ever evolving. Finding your purpose helps you focus your time and energy in activities that fulfill that purpose and spend less effort on those that distract you on your journey.

Think of the Monarch butterfly and its three thousand mile journey from Mexico to Northern America and how it’s a generational migration. Meaning that the drive to travel from one place to the next is within their DNA and their purpose is inherited from their parents.

Alas, we are not as fortunate and it is up to us to find our way on our own. I’ve been thrilled and honored that several readers took me up on my suggestion to go back through their archives to discover where they’ve been so that they can better understand where to focus their energies for their photography. It is an enlightening exercise and worth the time it takes.

With better understanding of ourselves and our photographic ‘work’ we can begin finding our purpose as to what story we want to tell with our photography. It is still sometimes challenging though to get motivated to get out there and shoot. What I can suggest is for you to create an assignment for yourself to achieve in your next outing.

In a recent outing at the Howard County Conservancy I wanted to work on a technical aspect of my camera which involves multiple exposures. One image thrown out of focus, the next in focus. The Canon system blends the two (or more) images in camera and gives you the final result.

There are many more great ideas of an assignment you can work on to help find your purpose and also develop your photographic skill. If you are short of ideas, take a look at 52 Frames: The Weekly Photography Project

It is a great idea starter for you, but my wishes are that you are able to find your purpose, your own voice on your own and that will lead to the wonderful world of self-discovery. Good luck!