Whenever I get a new project on an arena I’m not familiar with, my initial thoughts to myself are almost always panic and…
How the hell am I gonna do this!?
WTF is ______(industry term)!!???
Perfect! This is gonna look like 💩
Don’t know if I’m going to be able to get all this done in time. There’re so many items to explore!
YEP! The client is gonna know I’m just winging it.
I remember once when I was young, I was hanging out with some friends at the Y. We were going swimming. I had no idea how to swim at the time, but I agreed anyway. The lifeguard even asked everyone if we all knew how to swim. Got on the diving board and jumped right off and of course, I thrashed my arms about and kicked around as if that was helping. The truth is I was trying to keep from drowning. The lifeguard jumped in and pulled me out of the water, she was not amused at what I did. I later took swimming lessons and learned how to actually swim for real.
The thing is, I wanted to be with my friends and do the things we were doing. (of course in hindsight, this definitely wasn’t the smartest thing…) But sometimes in life, you just gotta jump off. You can’t possibly wait until you’ve learned everything you think you need before going and doing the “thing” for real. I’m a firm believer in learn-as-you-go and learning from your mistakes. The fear and insecurities that live inside your head only exist in your head. The things you’re afraid of don’t actually exist in the real world. Of course, those feelings and thoughts are real enough for you because you hear them all day long, eating at you.
You are, however, brave enough to overcome your fears. It doesn’t matter if you end up failing, or not hitting the goal you’ve set for yourself. It does matter that you showed up for yourself, and know that you’re going to learn from it.
So
Perfect! This is gonna look like 💩. Now, we’ll learn and do better next time.
