Learn something new (in UX or in life)
It doesn’t have to be a big thing.
I’m not talking “learn how to code”, or “finally play that instrument at a professional level after not having done it since you were a kid”. Those are lifelong endeavors.
But even big skills start something. So I mean, take a small thing, any thing, and just start. It doesn’t matter what it is, but I guarantee that within a few minutes — maybe even seconds — you’ll have learned something you didn’t know before.
Maybe you find auto-layout in Figma confusing (I know do!). Here’s a short video on how it works.
Or maybe those damn Bézier curves are giving you trouble in Illustrator. Here’s a video for that.
Or maybe your problem feels a little more existential — maybe your startup is struggling with finding focus and direction. Here’s my favorite book on the topic (specifically Chapter 5 in Good to Great on the HedgeHog Concept).
Or maybe, like me this past weekend, you decided to watch a YouTube video on how to change your old Miata’s brakes — and then went ahead and actually did the work.
Is learning something new scary? Absolutely.
I was so scared I’d break something this past weekend, I almost caved in and called the mechanic. And if you’re like me and have intense Impostor Syndrome, it can even be scary while you’re in the middle of learning something, your Lizard brain constantly trying to tell you to stop, go back to what’s safe, retreat to The Known.
Don’t do it.
Learn something — anything — new. Right now. Go.
