It’s not without effort.
Everything you see online these days seems so effortless, from the gorgeous photos on Instagram to the beautiful people on TikTok. Each and every one of those posts make looking perfect seem so easy…but it’s not. The amount of work that goes into making something look effortless is often far more than you’d image. Something’s require more effort than others, but virtually nothing in this world is effortless.
A perfect example of effortless for me are my most recent headshots. For more than 15 years, I have directed and helped produce – with complete and utter ease – hundreds of photo and video shoots for clients. I have also “jumped” on camera for a news story or video as a spokesperson time and time again but ask me to put together looks and direction for my own photo shoot for a new endeavor and it takes me 3 months and thousands of hours agonizing over the props, location, hair and make-up direction, location, look and just about every other detail of the photo shoot.
The photos that I recently launched are a culmination of months of preparation and two professionals with years and years of experience that made the final product look effortless.
On the day of the shoot, during the hair and makeup phase I was talking about exactly this: the appearance of effortless really drives inauthenticity because the fact of the matter is, there is no such thing as effortless. If something appears effortless, it may be in that moment, but it was more than likely a culmination of years of training, studying, practicing and honing the skills that will one day make something effortless.
Every single TikTok influencer has spent hours upon hours deciding on the perfect content that’s on brand for them, then getting their look together, making sure the lighting is just right, and that their editing makes it look perfect…effortlessly. From D’Amelio and Addison Rae to all the other dance and make up influencers – they’ve all spent more time than any one of us might realize to give the appearance of effortless.
On a more basic level, think of the lawyer that makes representing you look easy or the accountant that gets your complicated taxes done in a quarter of the time it would take you. They’ve no doubt spent countless hours and even years studying, learning, and practicing the art of their craft to make those tasks seem almost menial.
What about the person in the grocery store line that keeps ramming with a cart by a little kid behind them, but still manages to smile and not react? That person undoubtedly has spent an inordinate amount of time meditating, having gratitude for every experience in life regardless of how tedious or painful it might be, or has worked on understanding to the level of a saint. Nonetheless, it took learning and practice….or the right drug.
Remember the first time you tried to cook a meal? You had to learn all the pieces that go into working the stove, how to prepare something to be cooked, and then how to cook it. Assuredly your first meal probably wasn’t perfect or balanced, but after years of cooking, at least for most of us, we’ve gotten far better at it, making most meals we cook seem effortless. For me, my closest friends and family would joke that I could burn water, but today it’s a totally different story. I enjoy putting together a four-course meal designed to knock my guests socks off…just don’t ask my husband the last time I did that (I blame it on the pandemic.).
All that time that was spent making something look effortless is experience.
