On confidence

Ever wondered what it takes to be a designer, share your work with the world without worrying what others think, actually MAKE that decision to DO the thing that YOU want to do? 

👉 Design the quilt you want to design?

👉 Write the quilt pattern you want to write? 

👉 Publish the quilt pattern you want to publish? 

👉 Start the business you want to start? 

Take the plunge, do the thing, jump, get started..

All these scary things 

Maybe you think ‘only someone with incredible CONFIDENCE could do that’.

AKA ‘I could never do that… ‘

🤔 What if… I told you something that would change your point of view on confidence. 

I’ve been reading a bit lately on this and something I came across really struck me: 

Boom. You are not stuck at this singular level of confidence forever. YOU have the power to change your confidence, to grow your confidence. 

So if this is true, and we know that to learn a skill really just takes commitment, a decision to make it a priority and then showing up to practice, then why NOT you? 

What does confidence look like as a quilt pattern designer? Or an online entrepreneur? 

It looks very much the same as a lot of things. 

Committing to showing up. Consistently. 

Practicing the thing you want to get better at. 

One of the most powerful ways I know to build your confidence as a designer, is to make more work. Make more BAD work even. 

Just make, and make regularly. 

A daily design practice is an incredibly powerful tool not only for generating incredible ideas, or as a way to develop your skills as a designer, BUT ALSO (and probably most importantly) to grow your confidence. 

I’ve been working on re-establishing my daily design practice lately (yes, I have lapsed, and as painful as it is to admit, I willingly do so, so that you can see that it’s possible to (re)start one at any time). 

How am I doing it? Simple: I have committed to: 

1. showing up each day
2. making for the sake of making (not for Instagram, not to create something perfect, just to make, with no buy-in to what the outcome will be, just a buy-in to the process)
3. practicing what it is that I want to get good at

So what does all this have to do with confidence? 

You practice it. 

The more you show up and practice believing that you can do this too, the more you believe it and the more you believe in yourself. 

That is what it’s all about. 

So go practice!