How it feels to be on the other side

It feels very light. I've released all pressure and am trying very hard to define; put into words how I've achieved it.

Writing The breakdown post helped, but apart from that:

• choosing the more probable audience for the competition (people already interested in photography instead of everybody) took a lot of worry off
• thinking "what would be the most effective thing to do that wouldn't cost any money that I still could do over lunch or in the evenings" and looked at people I could contact.
• deciding that this is too much for me to bear and that it's OK to ask for help. I also tend to think that leaders bring people together rather than impose things on them, so if there are people who get inspired by the concept I'm pursuing, then I will ask them for help and support their efforts
• really embracing the concept of internal motivation and switching to reasons like: solving a really meaningful puzzle and just going for a challenge I've never done. Once I've accepted that I can fail, my ego's detached itself and now I'm simply curious

Being on the other side of the breakdown point filled me with new energy. The current strategy for the competition is:

• speak to relevant people and get new contacts from them
• work on getting some coverage in the local media using the known contacts
• working on reaching the target audience as soon as possible
• keep improving my efforts, see what's possible and keep pushing my assumed boundaries

This wouldn't have been possible if not for Edward Deci and his fantastic book: "Why We Do What We Do" which I intend to review here for any future readers and as a summary for myself. I am currently reading it for the second time.