How to set goals that will improve your photography [2021]

Getting better taking photos is not an easy task. It is very common to set goals when a new year starts. No matter the level of the photographer, I think we all have some goals set for the following year. However, not many people achieve their goals. As someone that has failed many times, and as a psychologist, I think I have something to say about how to set goals that will improve your photography goals.

Don’t think this is cheap coaching. Not at all. I won’t be telling you that if you desire something just by thinking about it you will have it. However, there are some easy tips that can help in making goals more attainable. Even if your goals are not photography related, you might find some of the tips helpful. Instead of photography, apply them to sports, lifestyle, economy…

Table Of Contents

1 Know your current situation
2 Define your long-term goal
3 Define the action plan
4 Set attainable, ambitious and checkable goals
5 Combine your goals and action plan
6 Revisit your goals
7 Don't skip steps
8 Celebrate
9 Start today
Conclusion

1 Know your current situation

If you have been taking photos for 2 months, setting the goal of making 10k monthly with your photos might be unrealistic, fail and then feel bad for not reaching your goal. Honesty is very important. Being critic with one’s situation is the first step towards setting attainable goals.

To analyze your current situation, I find very useful to get feedback from people whose opinion you value. Asking your closest friends and family what they think about your photos helps. But they might be biased. Instead, other photographers, people with some knowledge on the field will give you honest feedback. Be ready to be criticized, as this is the only way to improve.

Compare all the information that you get from this people with your own perception. Do both versions match? Then you have a solid background and a starting point. Otherwise, find the discrepances and reach a consensus that is both realistic and that you feel confortable with.

2 Define your long-term goal

Do you want to make a living out of photography? Or you just want to take better photos? Do you want to become a storm photographer? Which is your long term goal? Knowing what you want will help identify the steps to achieve it. Maybe you have more than one long-term goal.

The way to define your long-term goal will determine you how you set your other goals. I like the concept of “liquid goals”, especially the long-term ones. Imagine someone that back in 2010 wanted to be a well-known photographer. His or her goals could be set around expositions, participating on local photography meetings… This goal in 2020 would be achieved through completely different methods.

Even the goal should be formulated differently. What is a well-known photographer? Specify your long term goal. For example: make a living out of photography is a poorly described goal, it is too general. However, make money selling my photos online is a better definition of your long-term goal.

how to set your photography or personal goals — Well-defined goals are the key to success

3 Define the action plan

With one or multiple long-term goals, it is time to analyze what are the actions that will help you achieve long-term goals. Or to create sub-goals. I am a big fan of the “just do it” philosophy, and I apply it to my daily life. However, defining an action plan, thinking about how to do something will save you time, money and dissatisfactions.

It is the moment to divide your big goal into smaller goals. All those little goals that will direct you towards your greater goal. The long term goal can be very ambitious and even unrealistic, but the action plan should be very realistic. Start with just mentioning the elements, characteristics or variables that play a major role in your way, and then find out how you can control or monitor those variables.

The elements of this action plan could be a website, social media presence, a camera, lenses, time,… anything and any action can be part of an action plan.

4 Set attainable, ambitious and checkable goals

This is the most important element on this list. If you followed the past points, you already know your actual situation. You also know what you want to reach and the elements of your action plan. Thus, it is time to decide what your smaller goals will be. These goals should be attainable, ambitious and checkable. The first 2 concepts might be contradictory, but they are not.

An attainable goal is a goal that can be reached. An ambitious goal is a goal that won’t be easy, but that can be reached. Mixing both concepts will give you goals that you can achieve, and that once you achieve them you will be proud of yourself.

And what about the checkable concept? Imagine one of your goals is “have more followers on Instagram”. That’s a terribly defined goal, because it is too broad. So, if you have 1000 followers on Instagram and one year from today you have 1002 followers, technically you reached your goal.

Specify the number of followers, or the money, or the sessions that you want to do. One of the photography goals I set for 2021 is getting an amazing publishable photo every month. If by the end of 2020 I have 12 perfect images, my goal will be achieved. Oh, and the way to know if my photos are publishable or not, is part of another goal. This is a very useful strategy.

set photography goals — Getting better at photography requires time, dedication, hard work and some degree of luck

5 Combine your goals and action plan

Life is complex. Therefore, you can’t isolate goals. Getting more followers on Instagram will be linked to the quality of your images, that will be linked to the number of photgraphy sessons per week, that will be linked to how you organize your time… do you see where I am going, right?

Even within a single year, you will have more general and more specific goals. Combine them, but be careful. Create other ways to reach your goals, or find emergency options. This is very linked to the following tip. Before deepening in this, though, remember that a goal without an action plan does not make sense. One single task can contribute to two goals, or maybe one task that is positive for one goal can be negative for another goal. Take all of this into account and try to optimize your planning.

6 Revisit your goals

365 days is a lot of days. If you set your photography or personal goals in January, even if they are perfectly defined, by June they will be completely outdated. This is one of the reasons why people don’t reach their goals (besides being not well-defined and not setting sub-goals).

Once a month it might be a good moment to see where you are compared to your action plan and schedule, and if necessary, modify them or reformulate them. As I mentioned before, goals are liquid and evolve. Therefore, don’t think that the goals are set in stone. Revisit them and assess the degree of completion. In fact, setting yearly goals is difficult, as it is a continuous, not something with a start and end date (especially personal projects).

For example, this 2020 one of my goals was to create more travel photography guides for my blog. However, I have not been able to travel since March, when I got back from Japan due to the pandemic. Thus, I reformulated my goals and the tasks needed to achieve them. Instead of creating travel guides, I decided to create photography guides, with tips and knowledge I had from all my years taking photos.

7 Don’t skip steps

Although your long-term goal is very attractive, it won’t be reached easily. If it can be reached easily, either you have underestimated you, or the goal is not defined correctly. It is important to avoid skipping steps. Think about it like when a house is being built. If you don’t have precise house plans, issues might appear in the future.

Explore all the steps you need in order to achieve your goals. If you need to learn Photoshop, find a way to do it, skipping it will only make it more painful in the future when you realize that even if you succeeded, you are lacking some basic knowledge. On the other side, don’t create endless steps, try to optimize the process

8 Celebrate

When you set photography goals all you want is to achieve them. Celebrate and appreciate the process. Even the smallest goals deserve celebration. Do something that you like, share it with a loved one, or have a beer. Just acknowledge the fact that you have achieved something that you really wanted.

Oh, and if you fail, you can also have motives to celebrate (if it is not because you didn’t even try). First of all, you may have identified something that does not work, learnt a valuable lesson,… Some people will say that you have to fail to succeed, I am not that drastic. I just say that it is very likely that you will fail at some point. Just accept it and keep moving on!

9 Start today

The only reason to wait until the first of January of any year is if today it is the 31st of December. Otherwise, start today. Don’t lose any time, take a piece of paper, your phone… and write down the long-term goal. You already know it. Then, start planning the mid-goals, tasks… and the long-term goal will mutate and evolve.

Many people say: “Tomorrow…” and tomorrow never comes. If you want it, start now. And if you are not willing to start now, maybe you don’t want it that badly. Hey, this does not mean that you should leave your job, and start workin 24/7 on something. You can have time, economical, personal constraints. Therefore, the first task will be to find a way to overcome them.

If you want to start taking photos and you don’t have a camera, of course the first thing you need is to find a way to get a camera. This is what start today means.

start today personal goals — Start today!

Conclusion

Yes, a 9 points list. I could have made it a 10 points list, but this would have meant including something that wasn’t necessary at all. If you want to set your own photography goals, you now know how to do it. Hope some of the information on this article has been useful to you. If you want to follow my photography adventures, see how I keep improving and achieving my personal goals, you can find me on Instagram as @aniolvisuals.

I also have photography guides around the world and other articles about specific photography topics. Here you have a list with some of them!