Discouragement can be a new web designer’s greatest enemy. I know this because I’m constantly struggling with it every day. I usually find myself thinking: it’s too much to learn, I’m too far behind, I’m not as good as the other guys/girls or I feel like I’m wasting my time. Then I start to second guess myself. All of these thoughts pop into my head more than once every day, and it’s an ongoing struggle to get past all the doubts and uncertainties.
Is it going to stop you? Will you fight the constant urge to just quit? That decision can only be made by you.
Deciding to start a career in Web Design is the first part. The advantages are very appealing. However, the difficulties of reaching your goal can be misleading. It calls for countless hours in front of a computer, learning, reading tutorials, and trial and error until you get it down. But learning is only the beginning now you have to make a portfolio, and look for work. The competition on free lance job boards is fierce. How is someone with no portfolio supposed to stand out? You don’t, free lance job boards are so overcrowded that there is almost always somebody out there with work to show for who will do the job for very cheap leaving you out of luck. You need a portfolio so you do work for free or maybe you get lucky and get to code somebody’s design but at the end of the day you’re getting discouraged and those thoughts keep popping into your head, but you shouldn’t quit. The world is yours take it if you want it. So if it’s there why not take it?
In this phase of the road to becoming a web designer, I always try to remember these things:
- Don’t compare myself to other people.
- Prioritize and Plan.
- Never stop learning.
Don’t compare yourself to others
This is the biggest cause of my discouragement, the other day I went on because I was thinking of selling some WordPress Themes on their market. Website laten maken I looked around to see if anything I had done was good enough and found out that the stuff they sell there is really good! I immediately got this sense of discouragement because I felt like none of my stuff was anywhere near as good as that. Not to mention the complexity of the design functionality this was a bit beyond me. I figured I had 2 choices.
- I’m never going to be that good so why try?
- Damn that’s really good I want to get there someday.
I chose option number 2, because it’s no good putting yourself down every time you see someone’s work that’s better than you. There will always be somebody better than you.
Prioritize and Plan
I recently acquired enough knowledge and skills to put into practice. Right now I’m at a stage of excitement and eagerness to work which in turn has caused me to take on more than I could handle. After learning of all the exciting ways to make cash flow, I found myself working on so many things. I didn’t know how to use my time or what to work on and when. I started getting discouraged because I was spending all this time on it but wasn’t getting any work done. I knew I needed to be more organized so I wrote out my short term goals for each project on paper and by doing that I got a lot more work done. I prioritized them with a list and then wrote out a plan to reach my goals in turn making me a lot less discouraged about feeling like I’m wasting time.
Never Stop Learning
Learning is an ongoing act of life. We live we learn that’s what we do. Web Design is always changing and upgrading so you have to stay on top of the game or you’ll get left behind. This might sound like more of a discouragement rather than encouragement, but it really is encouraging. Everybody has to not just you, so your not alone. Just keep learning and you’ll be fine.
I’m starting to understand that I’m definitely not the only one that has ever had these thoughts and when I look at those who have paved the way for people like me to follow I feel reassured that discouragement is normal and everyone goes through it at some point, and if I try hard enough I could reach the same level of success.