40 days in Liminal Space — Defining the Challenge
A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing.
My friend and mentor introduced me to this concept of liminality after attending a conference themed around the topic. Since looking into it the meaning of the word, I have used it to describe and lead me through this new stage of life I am in — taking the leap, trying to change careers. I am a designer who took the path of a software engineer for the first three years of her career. I noticed early on that I was thinking and functioning as a designer in all of my projects and experiences, and have finally decided to formally take on the design role full time. In making this career change I have found myself in this liminal space — an exciting time, but also stressful for those like me who want to know what is coming next. So to make the most of the valuable time I have found myself with I am challenging myself to spend the next 40 days learning new things and refining my skills.
Liminal space is where all transformation takes place, if we learn to wait and let it form us.
The inspiration.
What has inspired me to document my learning journey is the exciting internet phenomenon 40 Days of Dating. Their story surrounds an experiment put on by two friends who try dating each other for 40 days, documenting their experiences through each answering the same set of questions each day. Originating from the saying that it takes 40 days to break a bad habit they detail what they learn about each other and themselves through the process of following preset rules about their relationship.
I love a challenge and structure so I wanted to develop a 40 day experiment of sorts for myself, to build good habits, learn new things, build confidence, and share my experiences in this liminal space. How will doing something 40 days straight effect my life?
The goals.
In order to keep a focus I wanted to set clear goals and rules for the next 40 days:
1. I will complete a 36 Days of Type letter.
I have been extremely interested in building up my skills in Adobe Illustrator by participating in 36 Days of Type — a challenge to design a letter or number every day.
36 days of restless creativity, where participants are challenged to design a letter or number each day, resulting an outcome of the ability to represent the same symbol from many different perspectives.
Even though I am not participating at the official time of the challenge I am interested in working through the 36 numbers and letters, refining my skills in visual design.
2. I will read one chapter of my Information Architecture textbook.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is a book that I have been recommended to read by one of my mentors. Dubbed the “polar bear book” it is a deep dive into all things information architecture. As interesting as the subject is it will be nice to have a schedule to stick to in reading and processing the textbook style information.
3. I will workout once a day.
There is no debate that working out has benefits, not only physically but mentally as well. It is unfortunately something that in past times of stress I did not prioritize. With the available time I have now I want to build back up the habit of working out daily and working towards goals. I recently watched the movie Brittany Runs a Marathon motivating me to recruit my roommate — an avid runner — to help devise a plan for building my running endurance. With discipline and commitment I would love to run another half marathon, or even better a full marathon. I also think it will be important to document the impact working out has on my day.
4. I will complete a step in the journey of finding my next role in UX Design.
As I am making a career change, there is a lot of work that goes into finding that next role and position. I want to aggressively pursue exciting positions in UX Design and find an environment where I can thrive.
5. I will fill out the daily questionnaire and document everything.
Following the structure of 40 Days of Dating I want to have a set of prompts to answer each day, to document my growth and learnings.
How are you feeling?
How was your day yesterday?
Did you exercise?
What article did you read? What did you learn?
What did you learn about Information Architecture?
Would you change anything about yesterday if you could do it again?
Did you learn anything about yourself?
Did you learn anything new about the world or the people around you?Let’s Do This
I am excited to see where the next 40 days take me — what I will learn and how I will grow.
