august days.

Yeow, this month is moving faster than I am!!

Between family camp, traveling to Wisconsin, and two other trips out of state,

I feel like I'm constantly hopping from one thing to the next.

Fun craziness, though!!

I'm taking a little rabbit trail to share something that I was going to instagram about,

but since I'm blogging I'll just share it here. :)

The past few days I've been thinking about the whole idea of working hard with your business 

or entrepreneurial endeavors.

Awhile back I got to attend a Clay Blackmore workshop and I'll never forget how towards the end he threw out the question,
"how hard are you working?"

It is amazing how God ties different themes together in your life, because just yesterday 

on instagram Dave Ramsey had a post with the quote "there is no shame in hard work."

There is a fine line with any home business when it comes to running it well, and not letting it run you, amen?!

Constantly a struggle, and every day striving to better live out this balance.

(preaching at myself here)

Another insta feed I follow is Freshly Picked, and every Tuesday the founder, 

Susan Peterson, talks about entrepreneurship. 

I'm going to share part of her caption from this week here, because it made me think and was a really good reminder. 

"...the questions that I ask myself, who are you? what do you want? what does that entail? 

Then I make a list, I write it all down! I think that the key is to not focus on the gap between who you are and who you want to become or where you are and what you want to do. I think that the secret sauce is to instead focus on the habits, the lifestyle, the choices of the person you want TO BE would do, have and make. These are the actions, thoughts and decisions that you must embody now. Focusing on the gap makes us forget what we really want. 
Making decisions as though we are already where and who we want to be allows us to become that person."

I was listening to a song recently and part of the lyrics were saying, 

"I'm not where I want to be, but I'm not who I used to be."

And this definitely applies not only as artists/business owners, but as Christians. 

No, we are not ever going to be perfect until heaven, but are we growing? 

Have we changed from who we used to be a year ago?

How are we allowing Jesus to cleanse our lives and take us deeper?
Are we disciplining ourselves so we can move forward?

Lots to think about with those questions.

I've just been pondering this, and have been challenged to push myself onward towards my dreams and goals
with photography and other areas, and wanted to share it on here.

Life moves too fast to not be lived with hard work, joy, and using our time as a wise investment.

"In all hard work there is profit, but endless talk leads only to poverty."

-- proverbs 14:23

So here's to talking less, and doing more. :)

 Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!!

love,

H. Elise

photos by my bestie, Amanda.

p.s. this last weekend I was up in La Crosse, WI and got to visit this super dear friend of mine,
and do her engagement photos. Isn't she gorgeous?!!

Can't wait to blog the rest of these soon. :)

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