Keep it Moving

to the K.I.M

Hey friends

Hope y’all are living well and appreciating the good things (big or small)

Is this what I’ve been working towards?

Lately, I have been trying to practice gratitude a lot more, not only in my professional life but my personal life as well.

One thing that has come with that is, that I think I’m finally starting to be proud of myself, I know that sounds kind of weird and a lot of people tell me that they’re proud of me for some of the things I’ve accomplished.

But I don’t think it fully gets put into perspective when you’re in this grind mode or doing your daily tasks until you really sit back and take it all in.

The other day I was driving home at night, listening to music, and I just felt this giant wave of appreciation for all the things that I’ve done in my past to get me to where I am now. 

I struggled a lot growing up financially and emotionally. It was not an easy battle to get to where I am these days as a human and as a designer in my career.

When I think about it all in the grand scheme of things, I am proud of what I’ve done so far. It’s so easy to beat yourself up about not being perfect or comparing yourself to other people who have more but that’s always gonna be the case and it’s about appreciating the things you’ve done so far and recognizing the effort that you put in to get there.

If my past self in high school or college, looked at what I’m doing now at 25 and saw that I’m not reliant professionally or financially on any one client, job, or company they really would be so proud.

I never thought I would be able to be this self-sufficient so early on in my career. I always thought that I had to go through the gatekeepers, or traditional routes to have what I thought “success” was.

But as I learn more about myself, the design landscape, and just things like the Internet in general, I realize that we live in such an awesome world where you’re able to pave your own opportunities for yourself and define your own version of what it means to be successful or accomplished in your career.

This has also helped me reframe what I am.

I am not just a designer, I’m also a content creator, a human being, and just a creative in general.

I always want to be considered as someone who practices the craft of design and is appreciated for those skills but it’s nice to not feel like I am pigeonholed into that identity.

I like feeling like I can pursue other avenues of creativity and expression that can also make me proud and quite frankly make me a living.

I know this is a little bit sappy, I just hope this message will maybe help any of you out there who beat yourself up too much or feel like you’re behind some of your peers or when those negative thoughts intrude into our mind.

I hope this will help you feel a little bit better about where you are, everyone has their own path so just appreciate the journey, and when you do start to get to this point(that I feel like I’m at)where all your hard work starts to come to fruition and things get a little more consistent. 

Take that all in, appreciate it, and try your best to fight that feeling of
”There always has to be more more more.”

It’s always good to feel grateful and content even but I’m learning now that does not have to mean complacent.

I love where I am and I can’t wait to keep it moving and see what happens in the future.

Stuff to Check Out

• Dope older posters

• Nice design by Noah Baker

• Halftone Selfie

• Banger

• Nice website

• Fav Design of the week below

  

  Awesome Gel graphic by Otakjelek

Weekly Wrap Up

Making Trading Cards for Legendary Designers

Scowl Poster Concept

Thanks for reading!
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Much Love, Glue.