I’ve been feeling STUCK. 2020 really threw me for a loop, and while I know I’m not alone in that, it feels pretty lonely in quarantine with Netflix and my dog.
Lucky for me, I had the opportunity to attend Tallia Deljou’s workshop at General Assembly entitled, Finding Your Purpose. That’s quite a promise in an hour long session.
One of my favorite things about Tallia is that she asks powerful questions. From her background in positive psychology, she shifts your perspective from “Oh Shit” to “I got this!”
Here’s one of the questions that I’ve been journaling about the last day that has started to change my mindset.
What does the world need from me? -> What do I need from the world? What do I need from myself?
After journaling about this for awhile, I realized why it was so difficult for me to get myself out of this stuck-ness. As a UX Designer, we’re always thinking about the user. As a business owner, I’m always thinking about my clients. As an employee, I’m always thinking about the business, design team, and my boss.
Thinking about myself was a complete blind spot for me!
As I wrote about what I needed from the world, I was happy and excited to discover these things out there! Then, I got to what do I need from myself and realized that I need to give myself — and the world — those things.
The things I need from myself include permission to make mistakes and get messy, fun, joy, laughter, dancing, permission to be loud and bold. Permission to create, teach, speak, be honest.
So tell me, what do you need from the world and how are you going to give yourself those things?
When I first worked on my portfolio at General Assembly, my goal was to get a job. And that was it. My portfolio was a means to an end — showcase that I could in fact design some interfaces, a prototype, using some sort of UX process.
So you’ve been hearing about UX design for a little bit now and you’re wondering if it’s time for you to make the career switch. You’ve got all the bootcamps pinned in your browser, you’ve heard about some local (or virtual) UX Meetups but haven’t mustered up the courage to go, and you just discovered the magical (overwhelming) world of Medium.
When I think of the core tenets of UX design, I think of these: You are not the user. If you’re too close, ask someone or take a break. When in doubt, test it
I remember waking up on Monday morning, January 2017, and dreading getting out of bed. Gradually over the course of the 2 years I stopped traveling for work, my start time pushed later and later. I told myself it was because my clients were on the West Coast or because I wasn’t on call until 10:30am anyway... but really... I knew.
Last week I received the surprising news that I would no longer be working at PGi. And while I’m grateful for the way they handled it and the timeline they’ve given me, it’s kind of like that break-up that you sort of saw coming and wish you had gotten to it first (except not really because #severance).