The day that changed everything.

Do you have a day in your life, one day, that you can point to and say "That's when everything changed?"

December 11, 2009.

That's my day. The day everything changed.

I was attending my first photography workshop. The Fast Track Photographer with Dane Sanders. I'd read the book. Now I wanted someone to point me in the right direction and say "go." I wanted someone to give me the rule book, to let me in on all the secrets. I got something else entirely.

I had never really thought about why I wanted to be or why I was a photographer before that day. If I asked myself why, I answered "Because it's what I'm good at." When I closed my eyes and tried to see what my future might look like, it was murky and foggy. I eventually gave up trying to figure it out.

Finding my purpose or vision for my business was not a concept that was foreign to me. I'd heard it preached by countless photographers.

And I laughed it off every time.

Vision wasn't important. Talent alone would drive my success. No need for a road map or gps directions; I would blindly stumble my way through, led by my talent and my ability to make people laugh.

I was asleep at the wheel, foot to the gas, hoping and praying I had magnets in my shoes that would keep me close to something that could be called a road. I was veering comically and dangerously off course.

I wanted someone to give me the secrets, the rule book, the magic equation that would make everything work and would guarantee me a multi-million dollar, 50 year running business.

But until I woke up, none of that would be any help. How can you learn, grow, accomplish when you're asleep?

Dane asked me to wake up. My fellow Fast Track Photographers asked me to wake up.

I was surrounded, for the first time maybe ever, by photographers with talent, drive, vision and the ability to make people laugh. I would drown trying to support myself simply on my ability to push a button.

I panicked.

And then I started to close my eyes, push away the fog and figure out what I wanted.

I stopped the car, pulled over and drew my own map.

My vision isn't complete. There's moments of total fog still. But I don't let myself blindly drive my life anymore.

I can't afford to.

And ever since I started letting myself dream? Some pretty outrageous things have popped up in that head of mine, like Photographers For or a road trip across 48 states.

Maybe sometimes the best dreams happen when you're asleep, but my best dreams have happened since I woke up.

You know what? Ever since I started dreaming, some pretty crazy opportunities have come my way. Small confirmations that what I'm doing is right. It fits.

Would these opportunities have come if I had kept driving in kamikaze fashion? Maybe. But zonked out at the wheel, I would have let them whiz by.

So December 11, 2009? That's the day that changed everything. Focus, vision, passion. Things in me I didn't know were there. Things in me I didn't care weren't there. Suddenly, they were there. Front and center, as if they'd been waiting for me to just lift the fog and invite them to speak.

There was no rule book handout. No A+B = Success equation. But I got the secret formula anyways. Vision + Focus + Passion = Unstoppable.

Dane Sanders and his team are headed back on the road for RoadShow 2.0 across the U.S. the latter half of this year and beginnings of next year. If you're a photographer, I highly recommend these workshops. The friendships alone are worth the price. To find out more dates, visit the Fast Track Photographer store here.