Honest progress
jasonleow • 16 Apr 2024 •
Almost every day now: 2h of deep work in the morning before heading off to work.
It ain’t much, but it’s honest progress.
This 2h of focus in the morning beats hands down, the 8h of distracted work for the rest of the day.
Quality over quantity.
Consistency over intensity.
Sometimes i feel that consistency’s all I’ve got. if I don’t do that, I got not much other strengths to bank on.
I’m not a senior developer with a decade experience working in a tech company.
I’m not a trained designer who cut his teeth in design school and is a Photoshop ninja and Figma wizard.
I’m not good at marketing—hated it initially in fact—and only managed to get by with it after I discovered I can just help others as a form of marketing.
I’m not great at storytelling and with social media, preferring to watch others build in public and geek out over shiny tech together.
I’m wasn’t built for this indie entrepreneur thing.
But I love building things.
And I know how to be consistent.
It’s what I got. So I make the best out of it.
Comments
Hmmm you’re right Haider. I started out not great at those domains, but after 4 years I think I made significant progress. Still not quite there yet but enough to start seeing results. But the imposter syndrome always speaks louder!
What you might find helpful when it comes to impostor syndrome is to focus on the people who are behind you in making progress in these domains and how you can help them. Don’t compare yourself to the experts and don’t pretend to be an expert. This way you can’t accuse yourself of pretending to be something you’re not, but you can definitely help with what you already know.
You would probably be surprised by how good you are right now in the domains you listed, but you have to embrace new dimensions to your identity. I clearly remember getting frustrated with my sister for wanting me to help out with a catalog design. I kept saying “I’m not a designer” to her, but mostly to myself, which was holding me back from embracing my design strengths. Now I’m a UX designer, and great at it.
Our impressions of ourselves often hold us back and get in the way of what we can accomplish.