The power of sharing as a designer
Why I’ve finally decided to document my design journey
Today is a big day! Yes, because I’ve finally decided to start writing about my design journey and in particular about my first steps in the UX/UI design industry. My goal is to use writing as a way to document my learnings, reflect on my progress and share my experience with fellow designers.
Priorities and fears
I’ve always felt the desire to share my journey with others but never had the courage nor the time to actually do it. Or to be honest, I have never made it a priority till now. On top of that, it never really felt “safe” and “quite the right time” to do it. Let’s be honest, writing about my personal experience feels incredibly vulnerable. Nevertheless, my overarching goal for 2021 is to step outside my comfort zone, so the time has come to put myself out there, no matter how scary it feels.
In these cases, what helps me is asking myself these two questions:
What’s the worst that could happen?
and then…
What’s the best that could happen?
An informal account
In the attempt of not putting too much pressure on myself (and you should know that I am veeery good at it!) I’m going to write a very informal account of my journey, reflecting on the successes and the challenges I face along the way, as I would do with a friend or family member.
How often am I going to write?
I commit to writing every single day. Does it mean that I will publish something every day? Mmm, not really. I’m trying not to put unnecessary pressure on myself. The goal is to develop a writing practice and keep track of what I’m doing to get closer to my goals, so, as far as I write every day for myself, I’m happy.
Why I want to document my journey and develop a writing practice
1. A deep desire to connect
I’ve always felt the nagging desire to share, to connect with other like-minded people, and talk about the ups and downs of a career in design with other fellow designers. I get so much just from reading other people’s stories, hearing their successes and their struggles, and about the steps that lead them to get where they are now. I love stories and I so much appreciate when people take the time to share their journey and put themselves out there in an honest and vulnerable way. People like that are the reason I feel inspired to do the work every single day, so I figured I could do the same.
2. Reflect on my learnings
Living such hectic lives, we live in a physical and digital environment that is full of inputs and content to consume. Therefore, if I don’t take the time to slow down and reflect on what I’ve learned, and being the curious person that I am, I find that I tend to jump right to the next thing, without looking back. To make the most of the education I’m getting and being an effective sponge, I definitely need to invest time and effort to reflect on what I’ve learned. From my experience, writing about the things I’ve learned is the most effective way to do that, as it forces you to stop, organize your thoughts in a deliberate manner and revise the key concepts you just learned. Therefore, that’s what I’m gonna do.
3. Be consistent and keep me accountable
I’m a huge believer in the power of consistency and in showing up every single day, even when you don’t feel like it. Success and growth don’t happen overnight: they are the result of hours and hours of intentional practice. The benefits of consistency are huge and I’ve experienced them multiple times by now. I love the concept of iteration and “iteration in public”. I’m a very disciplined and self-motivated person, so discipline is not where I struggle. Whenever I fail at being consistent is due to having too much on my plate at a particular moment and that’s something I have to keep in mind. Simplify my to-do list is the next step to take.
4. [Bonus] Practice my English skills
As you may have already noticed, I’m not a native English speaker as my native tongue is Italian. I would lie if I said that I feel totally comfortable writing in English but I don’t find it incredibly hard either. It surely takes me more time as I need to edit my writing [Grammarly is a God-sent, for sure!], and sometimes I need to look for the right words to express a particular concept. But I don’t want this to get in the way of sharing my journey and my thoughts. In fact, I plan to use this writing practice as a way to improve my skills and to get better at flashing out my thoughts and observations. As with anything, if you do something every single day, there is no way you will not get better at it. So please, bear with me, while I make mistakes and iterate in public :)
Thank you so much for reading! I’ll see you in the next post where I’m going to share why and how I’ve decided to teach myself UI/UX design.
Ciao!
