🧠 The Mindful Designer - The Journey Begins

"As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears." - Rumi

👋🏽 Hi there! I'm starting a new series called The Mindful Designer, in which I explore embodying mindful wisdom as a designer to help us not just survive but thrive at work and in life. 

You're invited to embark on this transformational journey with me to bring your best to the world and live your full creative potential.

Not your jam? No worries. You can opt out of The Mindful Designer series by selecting "Unsubscribe" in the footer of this email and clicking on "Turn off emails" next to this or other sections you'd like to unsubscribe from. HONY SOYT QUI MAL PENCE <-- inspired by Robin Sloan.

As designers, our creative work fills us with deep satisfaction and joy. We get to express ourselves creatively and collaborate with people to bring our ideas to life that positively impact people’s lives and help shape the world around us.

But many of us don't get a taste of this joy in our daily work as designers.

For many, work is synonymous with struggle, fear, doubt, lack of confidence, and the dreaded impostor syndrome. Each day we are at the edge of our seats wondering what will go wrong. Our outlook becomes gloomy and we wonder if we are even cut out to be designers.

We fall into a cycle of overthinking and start to believe that our negative thoughts are real. Each limiting belief we carry keeps us down and far away from the goals we want to achieve. Day in and day out, we struggle through work and believe this is all there is for us and this is all we could be.

We see others going through their days with ease and even having fun while working, and wonder, why not me?

We see others leaning in and sharing their ideas freely, and wonder, why not me?

We see others being successful and wonder, why not me?

Well, I was that designer who was struggling, overthinking, and doubting his abilities and wondered if success was for others and not for himself.

That was a challenging time in my career because

• I lacked confidence in my ideas and abilities as a designer

• I blamed everyone else and the world for my problems

• I felt like an impostor each time I got up to speak

• I lacked self-awareness and never took the time to understand myself better

• I was frustrated and felt I was stagnating in my career

I think you get the point; I was down and out.

But then a shift happened.

As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of all inventions, I searched for a way out of my predicament and learned that I had the power to change the direction of my life so I started on my journey to become a designer who was better equipped to deal with the daily challenges and obstacles I faced.

So, I started my journey to become a mindful designer.

I read books on mindfulness, creativity, cognitive psychology, and mindsets to understand my mind and to learn the tools and techniques I could use each day to live a better life.

I worked with a coach who helped me see the limiting beliefs I was carrying around which helped me break free from the unhelpful mindsets that kept me stuck.

I learned about the wisdom from spiritual philosophies of Zen, Buddhism, Stoicism, and others to help me change my perspective on living a good life and to dive into mindfulness and meditation.

I spent time bringing awareness to my inner world to better understand my values, my goals, my thought patterns, my inhibitions, my fears, my doubts, and what made me me.

As a result, I have a new outlook on work and life, which has empowered me to show up and lean in at work so I can be the designer and person I knew I could be.

If the struggles I mentioned sound familiar to you, I want you to know there is a way out so you can make the best of this one precious life that you have.

You don’t need to be defined by your situation.

You have agency over your career and life!

You have amazing creative potential!

and most of all, you are limitless!

As a manager once told me when she saw that I was not living up to my potential, “Unleash yourself!”

I invite you to join me on this journey to break free from the inner struggles and the limiting beliefs that hold you down so you can be your best at work and in life and achieve your creative potential.

Let’s start this journey to become a mindful designer.

- Rizwan ✊🏽

The mind is everything!