A lot of what I’ve been doing over the past few months is figuring out exactly what I’m going to be doing when I leave college. As I’ve been doing this, a lot of questions have come up along the way, serving as building blocks of self discovery.
Many of us are going through this in one way or another, whether you’re in between gigs, or also in that final lap of school which naturally forces you to think about these things.
One of the biggest lessons for me so far has been that we can’t have this all figured out all at once. And this isn’t something I think is just for creatives, but first and foremost as a human — finding the voice that helps you distinguish yourself from others requires you to take a big step back from your reality. This pulling back allows you to think of what you really value, and how you can turn that passion into something that you’d like to wake up and get after every single day.
What I’m saying here doesn’t just apply to finding your own calling, but it can apply to how you build a business, or even a side hustle that you’re grinding away at. I’m reminded of an Inside Intercom interview with Brian Rothenberg, VP and GM at Eventbrite—
“…people will build the right things if they understand what they’re building towards and how they are uniquely positioned to do it…It’s led me to believe that if you don’t know why your product or service is growing you’re just one step away from slowing down. It will inevitably happen.”
This quote makes me think of the Simon Sinek talk How great leaders inspire action. I know bits and pieces of this video have been thrown around on the internet for years, but don’t let that cloud the fact that what he’s saying in that talk is objectively true. Once you figure out why you’re doing something, you’ll be able to tap into a powerful stream of inspiration and drive that will put you on the path to accomplish amazing things.
This process started for me early on in college, I just never knew how I was going to talk about it — and I’m still on the path of figuring everything out. My realization came when I was sitting in my Foundations 1 class and we were talking about consumption. Whether it’s the films we watch, music we listen to, or conversations that we have —all the information we take in has an effect on what we put out into the world in one way or another. From that point on, I wanted to figure out exactly what I needed to consume more—and less—of to be the best designer I could possibly be. I had started to align myself with a mission, to look for purpose in everything I do—but that doesn’t mean that everything changed overnight.
Figuring out your own intentions
As I began to think about my own process, it was pretty apparent that I had none. And as I realized this, things start to get better, because once you start to run up against solid questions about your own life, the process of change is just beginning.
I don’t think theres a crime in studying the process of someone you respect and borrowing from it, but I do think you should dig deeper and find out what their intentions were. These intentions are the “Why?” that ultimately helps to guide you as you’re figuring out the “What?” and “How?” of your own voice.
For me, it was while studying Architect I.M. Pei that I figured out my “Why?”. Essentially, Pei had an intimate connection with his process. For example, when he was designing the Islamic Art Museum in Doha, he immersed himself as much as he could in Islamic culture in order to understand the context that he was working within. This sensitivity to impact was naturally apart of Pei’s process, realizing that what he creates as an architect is forever written in the history of the area it belongs in. Overall this caused me to be more aware of why I’m doing what I’m doing and how getting a better understanding of context makes for more meaningful design.
Developing this early stage of my process is something that I’ve found to be really helpful when it comes to aligning a group, or just myself. You can either compete with what shapes someones world, or you can help complete it— either way you have to understand peoples’ worlds well enough to make any sort of impact on it.
All this is to say that once you begin to figure out exactly why you’re interested in what you do, it becomes something that energizes you every single day because you have a purpose. As tempting as it is — especially earlier in your career — you shouldn’t have to worry about how much you’re getting paid to do it. If you’re doing what feels true to who you are, your mindset is something like “Ok, I get up everyday and do ‘X’ — it just so happens that I get paid/earn recognition for doing it”. In no way am I trying to say it’s all roses and sunshine, especially as someone who’s still figuring all this out myself. But something tells me that if you focus on the process of developing yourself early and often, the output will be greater than you can ever imagine.
Don’t be too shy to share, what “aha moment” have you had in the past that’s shaped the course that you’re on in life now? Or what are some things that you used to believe that were overhauled by a better way of thinking?
