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Be Better Than Yesterday
I have a younger brother who is about to go to college to play soccer. Yesterday he told me he was going out to train with the ball so I decided I would accompany him and watch for a bit. After 10 minutes of watching I had to stop him and ask how he felt he was getting better by doing what he was doing. All he was doing was running up and down the field, dribbling the ball and shooting. While that does sound exactly like what you do in soccer (football), it is something that can be done easily without any challenge. By training like this he wasn't making himself better than he was the day before and if anything all he was doing was keeping himself at the same level. This only leads to frustration in the future because he will think about all those days he "trained" and why there was no reward.
I know his weaknesses and what areas he needs to improve in so for the next hour I trained him. I pushed him to new levels that he hadn't pursued yet. Although it was for only an hour you could see a bit of improvement and if he sticks with it he will improve greatly. The fact is that hour of training made him a better player than he was yesterday and that is what we all we can ask for in life.
Perpetual Motion
When people ask how they can improve as a designer the fact that you tell them hard work and consistency are the keys doesn't make them too happy. There has to be a guaranteed fast track, but there isn't. Drawar has been open for 7 months and in that time I know I'm a better designer now than I was 7 months ago because everyday I have tried to think about design, talk about design and experiment with design. Okay, so maybe everyday is a bit of a stretch, but most days of the week I'm seeking out how to better myself in design, development and business.
If you would've told me 7 months ago that I would have to put this much work in just to get to this level I would've balked at the notion and walked away and that is what 99% of the world does. To them they see 7 months as a long period of time, but it becomes even longer when you don't do anything during those 7 months. When that happens all you do is look back and wish that you had done something for 7 months. I know the feeling because I've had it for 19 years, first with soccer and now with my career.If only I had taken one day at a time to make myself better at my passion and I don't mean casually. I mean really push myself to improve, even for only an hour then I would be that much better than I was before. Understand that this doesn't just apply to your own skills though, it applies to everything in life.
Build Brick By Brick
What if you spent an hour every day cold-calling/emailing potential clients for work? What if you did that for a month straight? That's 30 hours worth of business development that you put in instead of wishing that you had spent the time doing it. That might mean three to four new clients that you didn't have 30 hours ago. All it took was 60 minutes of your day and some days you were frustrated, but by sticking with it you've made your business that much better.
When people tell me they wish they wrote more, but they don't have time I laugh at them because that is complete garbage. There is always time to write. The flaw in their thinking is that they need to sit down and write a complete article. If you only have 30 minutes in your day to do whatever you want there are two approaches you can take.
- Wish you could write an article, but realize that 30 minutes isn't nearly enough time to get one done so you don't do anything.
- Write a couple paragraphs (or even just one) for your article. Do that every day for the week and you should have 9-10 solid paragraphs which is more than enough for an article. Next thing you know you are writing an article a week.
Chunks
We have to let go of the mentality that we can get better in huge chunks. When we think like that we often end up frustrating ourselves because we attempt to cram everything into one shot. Although it can be frustrating trying to improve in little chunks the results will show over time.
Nobody walks into the gym and benches 300lbs on their first shot. They build up to it every single day with different exercises and routines. Some get there faster than others, but that is the way of life. The point is that all people get there eventually when they put the work in. So instead of worrying why you aren't a better designer already focus on how you can start becoming one today with the understanding that 7 months from now you will be better than you are now.
This article was a bit different than what you usually see right? That is what Drawar is all about. It's not about being different, it's about helping all of us dig deeper into what web design really represents. It thrives off its members contributions so if you like what you see consider becoming a Plus Member or Drawar Friend.
11 Comments
That is one of the reasons why I write the way I do. No one is perfect and surely, no one is always right, but we've all experience circumstances where we see a situation (perhaps due to experience) that friends/family/etc. do not see. Sometimes they are willing to listen, sometimes they don't - people learn their lessons in their own time.
Your brother trusts you and knew what you told him was accurate, even if he "really" didn't want to do it. By trusting you and giving it a shot, he improved himself and hopefully he'll continue to excel. Great to hear he's doing to well! :)
That is why credibility, trust and ethics are important, especially online. Most times, the news is something they don't want to hear or do not see the value in at the time. Often it is the trust that gives the person the incentive to listen.
Currently, I'm pushing myself in ways I would have laughed at months ago. Funny how situations can turn your life around and cause it to completely change direction. Looking back, I just shake my head wondering what I was thinking...but it also proves I had lessons to learn and I learned them.
I tune out when people say they don't have time. The time is there, the person opted not to spend it that way. I know people, due to the down economy, are working 3+ jobs and literally have little free time but that is the exception.
It's a shame when people don't want to "pay their dues" and earn their success (get rich quick). That process yields expertise and wisdom that is valuable to maintaining success.
Great advice. Every journey begins with one small step. Too often we try to complete the journey in one giant leap instead.
One thing I'd add is you have to be willing to fail along the way. Keeping with the sports theme you get better by playing against better competition. That means you're going to lose some at first. Over time you'll start to win more often and even most of the time. Then it's time to play even better competition and fail again before getting better.
With web design it's about trying something new. You can't be afraid to step outside your usual comfort zone. You have to try doing things in a new way. That could mean taking on a client you might not normally take on or using a color palette that's completely different than the usual. It's about challenging yourself some way in each project.
You'll fail some along the way, but 6 months or a year later you'll look back and realize how much you've grown as a designer.
Sometimes you can have a big leap in skills, such as when you learn a lot of smaller things and the whole of them add up to greater than the sum of their parts.
No better feeling than when it all clicks together and you have that "Ahh now I get it!" moment.
Excellent article Scrivs! One of your best for sure. It's definitely a good reminder to start doing something if you want to get better in any aspect of life.
For me, I love figure drawing but I realized I need more work as far as getting the proportions of the human body accurate enough. So, I decided to take 10 minutes out of my day to do gesture drawings. I still need more practice but I see myself improving a lot.
As a freelance web designer, your article was a big kick in the butt 'cause I do feel like I haven't been spending my time wisely enough - like I could do more especially when I don't have much client work.
Guilty here. Scrivs, many of your articles carries a underlying theme of "just do"; and it is constantly motivational. I've been spending a lot of time doing a lot of nothing, if I had spent just a few hours, or even one a day practicing my Photoshop skills, or coding on a website, I'd be a lot better off.
Still trying to get over the whole "it's only progress if it's done in a big chunk!" thing. I am soooo guilty of this it isn't even giggle worthy anymore.
Personally, that mentality has paved way to hours and hours of heinous procrastination because I really didn't think I was doing much just by tweaking a small chunk of code and/or scribbling down a sentence or two.
And on a semi unrelated note, this is also probably why I hopped onto tumblr...
Because tumblr makes it OK for me to think/write in short snippets, huzzah! :p
Thank you very much for giving us one of the best articles of yours. It is superbly Inspiring and motivating for me. And I am sure I'll make it to become better than I am today. And yeah, I'm waiting for more quality articles like this.
Thanks and Regards :)
This is a particularly timely article. On my side of the world, a few of us are trying to package the years of haphazard lessons we've learned on design and development. The underlying theme to a lot of the work is the many baby steps that equal the giant leaps in understanding - kind of what Abban said. Even following one simple Photoshop or CSS3 tutorial adds another step to that leap.
One thing I've noticed about this whole learning and growing process is that the better you are at asking questions, the better you get at answering them. Especially you, Scrivs: you ask a lot of questions or question a lot of what has been taken for granted. Asking questions is like running up and down the court, pushing yourself to learn the why and how far of a limit. In the instantly gratifying nature of the web, those dribbling movements are often ignored. But through our research, we've found that so much can be learned by questioning and deconstructing the parts to the whole, whether those are beautiful websites, simple tutorials, or best practices.
Good stuffs!
Like the book says, "What got you here, won't get you there"
Great article! We can all learn something from it. Thanks
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There's a really crucial piece of your story here concerning your brother's improvement: "I know his weaknesses and what areas he needs to improve in." It's true that progress and improvement comes slowly, but it doesn't come at all if you don't know what you're doing wrong.
Sometimes it takes someone else to tell you "you suck" (in a constructive way, mind you) to see your weaknesses. Just as important is the ability to take that criticism and push it in a positive direction.