Confidence is the key to being a successful designer
Published with Inside Design in 2019
There will be times where you don’t present a design as well as you thought or you didn’t think through a design. As a designer starting out, it can be easy to have ambitious goals or set unrealistic deadlines, and when you don’t meet them right away, it can somewhat crippling to your confidence. How do you deal, to have the confidence to hold your own when situations didn’t go in the way you thought it would?
Small steps
I learned that working too hard, to point of not taking care of myself or having the expectation that I will be able to overcome my weaknesses overnight isn’t realistic and has been counterintuitive in improving my confidence. Not giving myself time to reflect and recharge has made me harder on myself, which makes it easier to give up and not try again because I feel so tired.
We have to remember that we won’t be able to get where we want right away. Sometimes it can take weeks, months, years to achieve what we want and even then we might not feel like we did enough. Instead of framing your worth by your achievements and the pace of which you get things done, remember that it’s perfectly fine to take small steps and know that as long as you continue to work your shortcomings, that is what will improve your confidence in the long run. To become more resilient requires trial and error, and similar to design where a solution won’t always work and you won’t always deliver your A-game all the time.
Be present
There have been moments where the shortcomings I so want to overcome, such as confidently stating a fact or feeling comfortable talking to a room full of people, don’t happen at the every chance I get to improve these things. This can be frustrating, especially since I’m so used to things happening right away, but this progress doesn’t happen overnight. It took me a few years to get to where I am now, and to some, it might feel like I was always where I was, prepared and knowing what I wanted to do. This really isn’t true.
One of the principles that I believe helps improve your confidence for the things you might be scared of overcoming is being present. This means attending network events even though being around so many people is overwhelming or committing to something that you never thought you would be doing but know that it will improve your confidence in that skill. I can say that for most of things I decided to do, I never thought I would see myself doing, such as teaching or speaking, but that was because I decided to be present and commit to seeing those things through, to challenge myself and get out my comfort zone.
Reflect on the achievements you were able to make or improve in a day, week, month, etc.
One simple way to improve confidence is to think about all the previous achievements or steps you took. This allows to strengthen your way of thinking, in that you worked hard and were able to do so much given your situation. It can be super easy to focus on the negative, like I should have prepared more for that presentation or I should have better articulated my ideas, but when you go into any of those situations, I try to focus on one to three key points of improvement I was able to make in relation to the bigger goal I want to achieve.
An example is being more confident speaking up. Every time, I go into a meeting, I try to make an effort of being assertive in the points I want to make and make a mental note that I was able to be just a little more confident in doing what I set myself up to do. These small gains accumulate over time and when applying the concept of taking small steps and being present in improving them, they do increase your confidence, to the point where you aren’t afraid of your shortcomings and those shortcomings can become your strengths.
Everyone is in this together
Confidence is something that isn’t just from the self, but can be shared and felt with others. The confidence that I was able to gain came from my peers who gave me opportunities to succeed, who believed in me and who continue to challenge me and become a better person in work and in personal life.
I recommend anyone to make friends in their organization, to seek guidance when needed and to constantly find ways to challenge yourself in situations. Gaining confidence is something you can gain from learning from and with your peers.
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