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I wrote 150,000+ design-related words in the past year; here’s what I learned that can help you grow
You grow up when you show up.
Wow…here we are, over 150,000 words later. That’s nearly the equivalent to J.R.R. Tolkien’s 156,198 words in Lord of the Rings — The Two Towers! The difference is, Mr. Tolkien’s books are much more exciting to read and continue to generate waaay more money! 😂
Even still, I’ve learned a lot in the past year. I almost lost my wife (twice) to suicide, contracted COVID-19, fought through chronic back pain, was sent home to work remotely, slowly started losing my vision, and had to stay away from family and friends for much too long.
Those events, on top of my regular 9–5 job, gave me a lot to think and write about. As a result, I grew as a person because I showed up consistently to do what I love. I have a few things to share with you regarding design and writing if you’d like to improve in those two areas.
Here are my 5 big takeaways from writing about design for a year.
1. Soft skills are much more important than we realize
A majority of my writing centered around soft skills, or as I like to call them, real-life skills. I’ve found this to be my writing niche in the design world. It’s not to say they’re the only skills you need as a designer, hard skills matter too, but I stand by them as the essential skills you must work on if you want to succeed as a designer or design leader.
You get to design the experience others have of you, make it a good one.
Active listening, communication, collaboration, dealing with ambiguity, teamwork, reading body language, rallying others around company/customer goals, decision-making, creativity, curiosity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence are just a few key skills you should be working on.
Jenifer Lambert, Chief Strategy Officer at TERRA Staffing Group, stresses the importance of soft skills in her 2021 article, “Top Soft Skills for 2021”. In it, she states:
“There is scientific research that shows companies that focus their hiring criteria on soft skills…
