These past few months have been full of change for me. I left the comfort and predictability of my previous career so I could finally plunge head-first into the endeavors I have been waiting to get to for over a decade. Waiting had turned into a cycle that I wasn’t really content with. Although I was able to inject spurts of these interests and passions into my weekends here and there, it was never consistent. I was never able to fully immerse myself in my own work, nor was I able to consistently make the huge leaps that mark substantial growth in these areas. The truth is, people have limited capacity, and I am no different from anyone else when it comes to this. To remedy this problem, I finally made the decision to end my career to break into a new line of work in design and technology.
…breaking into a new field as an adult is like being plopped in the middle of a vast, scary wilderness, especially if you are no longer an expert like you used to be in your previous line of work.
Despite having an immense love for all of what I am finally able to fully pursue right now, breaking into a new field as an adult is like being plopped in the middle of a vast, scary wilderness, especially if you are no longer an expert like you used to be in your previous line of work. Suddenly, I am no longer the knowledgeable professional with years of experience and multiple degrees. Suddenly, my resume has been demoted to the C-list. Suddenly, I am encountering problems that I do not know the answers to and sometimes do not even know where to begin to search for the answers. This was the opposite experience I had at my previous job, where I rarely felt I did not have an answer for how to solve a problem relative to other experienced professionals in the field.
Instead of being inspired by what I could learn to do, I was getting trampled by my intimidation of what I had not yet been able to accomplish.
I will admit that I have felt many moments of frustration and loss. And dare I say depression. A month following my final day at my previous job, I questioned myself and my worth. A lot. All around me, I saw incredible, amazing projects that designers and developers were creating. And here I was, stuck on the basics. All-the-while, there are seemingly endless paths and branches of paths coming out from every direction around me, beckoning me to learn them all at once. Sometimes all I could do was just stand there in overwhelming paralysis. There is just so much to learn! How would I ever even come close to catching up to all of these talented professionals in the field? Instead of being inspired by what I could learn to do, I was getting trampled by my intimidation of what I had not yet been able to accomplish.
Getting inspired instead of intimidated involves monitoring your transition and keeping your experience in check. The goal is to maximize genuine feelings of success and to minimize wasting valuable time and other resources. For those of you who are in a similar situation of forging your new path in a brand new field or way of life, here are some very important lessons I learned since embarking on this journey.
1. Focus on just one or two things at a time.
Image source: Skillcrush “Frontend vs. Backend”. By focusing on front-end development only, I was able to fine-tune the quality and specificity of my learning and avoid being overwhelmed.
It is tempting to want to try and learn every single thing you encounter all at once when you are first breaking into a new line of work. But first realize that this is not possible! And it’s also a potential detriment to your sanity and ironically your productivity. Switching focus constantly will only end up hindering your over-all ability to learn most efficiently.
When I was first starting out, I was all over the place. Because web development and design are very broad fields with many different directions, I found myself trying to branch out more than I was capable of doing. I tried to explore every rabbit hole and ended up not getting very far into any one skill or concept. And the worst part was how I felt when I would finish a work session. Talk about a frenzied mess! I would end a session feeling drained, worn out, and unproductive. And feeling like I just wanted to quit. Talk about walking inspiration to the door and giving intimidation a free pass!
I tried to explore every rabbit hole and ended up not getting very far into any one skill or concept.
Over time, I developed a new approach to my work. First of all, I took some time to fine-tune my relatively short-term goals. Although I could potentially go the full-stack route in the future, I decided that it made the most sense to start out by focusing on front-end development due to my natural interest in design, UI, and UX. From there, I have continued to narrow my focus. For example, although I found drawing images via CSS extremely fascinating, I decided my short-term goal is to simply make kick-ass websites.
2. Don’t feel bad about closing a door. Or several doors.
Imagine trying to go through all of these doors at once. You wouldn’t get very far. If you pick the one door that matters most, you can further explore it in greater depth!
This leads me to the next lesson. In order to narrow your focus, you’re going to have to close a good number of doors–and that’s okay. If we had infinite time and capacity, we could by all means explore every single door we encounter. But since time and capacity are finite resources for us humans, we’re going to have to close some doors (or a whole lot of them) so that we can make the most of the doors that lead us in the directions that bring us closer to our desired destinations. In order to become an expert in what you do, you’ll have to choose one or two paths and travel those paths very far. Once you do that, you will start seeing results more immediately in your work. This, in turn, heightens your inspiration as a direct result of your progress and productivity.
3. Designate one or two quality sources at a time as your “go-to” places for learning and inspiration.
This goes along with lessons 1 and 2. Instead of spreading your time too thin with 10+ different learning sources, stick to one really good learning source at a time and refer to outside sources for specific questions and problems as needed. Keep your goal in mind and frequently check in with yourself to see if your “go-to” place is taking you where you want to go. If not, end it (don’t feel bad about it one bit), and find something that will actually get you where you want to be.
This goes for sources of inspiration as well. At one point, I was involved in #100DaysofCode, the Code Newbies challenge, CoderGirl, Medium, etc. Trying to keep up with all of these, although positive in intent, ironically started taking away from my learning experience. I was so busy trying to organize and manage my involvement in all of them that I would at times lose precious design and coding time as a result! And guess what that did for my inspiration and intimidation levels? Yup…
4. Know when to stop consuming and when to start doing.
I have found that there is a fine line between inspiration and intimidation when I am consuming others’ ideas and projects. What starts out as a positive experience can slowly and sneakily transform into an opportunity to start shining myself with a harsh light of negative comparison.
I have recently started limiting my “inspiration consumption” time. I will get on Pinterest and save a few inspiring designs. I’ll read one inspirational post. And then I’ll be done. Then I can move on to creating. Instead of constantly being on Twitter, I’ll get on there a few times a week to check in on everyone’s awesome code work and to share some of my own. Then I’ll start working on my own projects inspired by what I have seen.
What starts out as a positive experience can slowly and sneakily transform into an opportunity to start shining myself with a harsh light of negative comparison.
Besides, if you are constantly consuming, you will never have time to create and get better at your craft! Taking in more ideas than you can remember will not make you better at your craft. Taking a few things in here and there and then putting them into practice will!
5. Seek advice… but don’t forget to listen to yourself.
With the internet bombarding us with loads of advice about what to do and how to do it, it is easy to get carried away by the overwhelming and oftentimes contradictory nature of these messages. And then inspiration turns into intimidation, because you can’t even think straight and start feeling helpless and lost. It is great to seek out ideas and inspiration from others, but there has to be a point where you turn everything off, go for a solitary walk, and do some soul-searching and introspective thinking on your own. Everyone else has had a chance to speak, now it’s time to give yourself a voice. Listen carefully to what you have to say about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. The better you can get at carefully listening to yourself and what your needs and wants are, the better you will get at addressing lessons 1, 2, 3, and 4. And the more likely you will pin-point more stable sources of inspiration from within.
6. Track your progress.
You know how if you haven’t seen someone in years, you can point out what’s different about them more easily than someone who has seen them every single day all of those years? Well, that’s pretty much how recognizing your progress is like. If you’re doing something regularly, it’s easy to miss the overarching breadth of your improvement over time. Track your progress. It is so easy to focus on what you don’t know and to lose sight of everything that you have learned. Don’t do that. That’s no good. Do something like keep an organized record of things you’ve learned and projects you’ve taken part in. Post briefly and regularly about your progress in a blog, social media, CodePen, and Github. Take time out here and there to compare what you are doing now to what you were doing when you first started or even just a few months ago.
7. Remember that what we see does not give us the full story.
When you look at someone’s amazing work, you are not looking at the first day they learned a basic skill. You are not looking at the obstacles they encountered or the struggles they experienced years ago. You are not looking at the failures that led them to where they are right now. But maybe you should. Even though you don’t know the details of these experiences for every person, just know that everyone starts out knowing nothing about what they eventually become an expert in and that everyone encounters challenges that they either choose to succumb to or eventually overcome with time and perseverance. How you respond to challenges is one of the best indications of how far you will get. Be inspired by your and others’ ability to persevere and solve problems that lead closer to accomplishing goals. Being inspired only by end results will not get you very far.
8. Take care of yourself.
This is a simple one but can’t be overstated. Don’t ever lose sight of your needs as a whole person. Take care of yourself by giving yourself time to rest, relax, and enjoy life. Balance your life so that you are able to address you mental, emotional, social, and physical needs. This will allow you to come back to your work with a fresh take and renewed energy. In other words, you’ll feel inspired!
And I leave you with this final quote on the topic of inspiration vs. intimidation.
Happy learning and growing!
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