The only impossible journey is the one you never begin ~ Tom Robbins

Do you know what is more depressing than people’s poor opinion of you? 

It is the self-sabotaging opinion that you form of yourself, the attitude where a person thinks they are not enough, and the skill-set they have is not enough to survive in this competitive world.

The funny thing about people’s opinion is that today they care about you, but two days later they will care equally about someone else forgetting you, so does it reeeally matter what they believe of you? You being the only person that is always going to think about you, you must have faith in being the main character of your story! Make sure your mind is a safe space for yourself to think about your aspirations, your life, and your goals because even if you think that you aren't enough to reach your dreams, believe you me, give yourself 3-6 months in developing yourself, and you will be astonished what the journey will teach you, even if you do not reach your destination.

I am writing this blog, to tell you about the 5 stages that I went through during my journey to become a digital designer. Some of my takeaways might sound unconventional to you, but trust me they will work ;)

It is important to know that I developed this skill to become an all-around digital marketer as my end goal.

Here goes Stage 1:

Mental preparation for the journey is the key: 

Well this is the same suggestion I would give a person before their first psychedelic trip ;p (jk jk, p.s I’m clean)

High school was the time when I first started to realize I am not enough, I used to see these kids doing all sorts of extra-curricular and there was me just waiting for that last lecture’s bell to ring so that I could rush home to not feel the anxiety anymore. 

Then as I moved on to degree college, I saw all sorts of talented kids, some with their start-ups, having skills to qualify for 5 other jobs, and some kids handling college fests with some of the finest leadership that I had seen, all these things frightened me, made me feel like I do not stand a chance against them. In the course of my degree college, I got some chances to stand out and do things of responsibility, but I passed it on thinking there might be someone better to do it because mentally I had started to victimize myself as the guy who is big talk and no show.

In my last year of college, Covid happened. My time in quarantine gave me time to reflect on my goals instead of looking at the accomplishments of others, to make the most of my time I deactivated my socials, because of the fake facade that social media has created, people like me with so self-esteem (at the time) become more conscience.

It was hard to quit Instagram in the beginning, but mentally it gave me an immense amount of relief, as every new day I started to do things that mattered like house chores, learning to cook, and spending time with my family instead of scrolling mindlessly. 

The little things made me feel content, as now I was not comparing myself to others, but to myself, becoming a better version of myself every day.

I got the time to think about my career, and I had a clearer picture of where I see myself in the next three years as I decided to become a digital media marketer. 

The uncertainty of my future, the anxiousness, and the pressure of accomplishing as much as others vanished in a month, just by doing the simple things. 

I am not suggesting to do what I did, as the main idea is to do the things that make you love yourself a little more because when you are happy internally, adulting seems less scary ;)

Stage 2:

Collecting/finding resources for the journey:

Once you are mentally prepared, 50% of your problems solve themselves, in my case I had decided what I wanted to do but how to accomplish it was still pending, I remember talking to some of my friends in digital marketing for their advice, talking to my parents, late night calls with my girlfriend (at the time), and last but not the least talking to myself haha ( I know you do that too).

After a few days of receiving advice from people and googling, one day I just opened YouTube, and believe you me it was bombarded with recommended tutorials on vector designing and certifications in marketing, even though I never searched for it personally on YouTube. My best guess is it hears everything you talk about, turns out that is true, although not yet acknowledged by these companies, kinda scary right? So you know, talk about it, the universe hears and answers back in some way

One of these tutorials piqued my interest in vector designing as it seemed very easy, along with that I also did a few certifications in marketing. 

You need to decide the best route for your journey, for instance, I had the option to do some paid courses or paid mentorship, but I chose to stick to YouTube since I wanted to max out on the available free knowledge, as it would have been a disaster to pay for it to realize it is not for me.

Stage 3:

Beginning the journey:

I gradually started to make vector portraits, learning from the tutorials, and started to practice it on the pictures of my friends and famous figures and posting them on Instagram. My portraits started to become better with practice and people showed an immense amount of love by sharing them. 

It started to become a side hustle for me, when famous figurines started to comment on my illustrations of them, to the extent that one of them shared it on their Instagram page.

At this point when I saw others doing better than me, I started to appreciate their talents unlike before, because now I finally understood that everyone had worked hard to reach where they were, and tiny gestures like commending them could make their day as it did mine.

I connected with a lot of like-minded people and learned a lot more about what it is like to be a creator.

Stage 4

(Questioning my journey?):

After a point, my growth became stagnant, as I had completely deviated from what I intended to accomplish which was being an all-around digital marketer.

I used to think is this it? Am I just going to be the guy that doodles? Because making illustrations took most of my time so I had very less time to focus on other aspects of marketing.

I was stuck in a phase to do my illustrations full time or take a break and study further. So I decided to take a break from my illustrations and started to apply to colleges abroad to strengthen my skill set. I finally got admitted to a prestigious college in Canada and I was back on track with my goal set.

Stage 5

Destination:

If you ask me, am I finally content now? The answer is a mixed one, well I am changing countries soon, feels like my anxiety might drop back to say hello, but on the other hand, I am excited to learn more about digital marketing! 

The thing about reaching the destination is that, once you begin your journey the number of destinations you want to reach gradually shifts gears, and you fall in love with the journey instead of reaching the destination. 

Just by focusing a little on myself, I was able to explore self-worth, career, and that I have the courage to change countries haha. If I can, then you definitely can.

I hope this helps you in your voyage.

So, Have a good trip guys ;)