Designing with Passion
I always wondered about those early birds who come to work before all the others; always excited to start their day, always designing with passion. What is it that excites them in that way? I was like that when I first started my job about two years ago; and I don’t think it was because I was trying to make a good impression …No, it was much bigger than that. I was full of energy; thirsty for knowledge, ecstatic … Like a new born trying to discover the world. I remember skipping breaks quite often, hastily munching my sandwich on my work desk … I think many of my peers found that strange, perhaps even annoying. I wasn’t at all social, so I didn’t really interact with many of them. At the time, I was also working part-time, which left no time for “co-work relationships”. I felt I had to catch up on all the others because I was the fresh graduate and had something to prove. I would buy books and learn on the job, always trying to apply what I read into my work. It was a thrill at times really. I enjoyed it very much and I guess that was all that mattered.
Six months later I began working full time; yup the usual 9–5 job. I felt I wanted to do more things; working full time was the kind of step I wanted to take at this point. This was also the time I was allowed to handle projects on a larger scale.
At first, things were slow. I always felt that because I had more hours, I always had more time. And so things got delayed. I procrastinated a lot. I certainly wasn’t as productive although I was more involved in projects.
A site visit to a warehosue
What's the best part of your day?
And so as the months passed … my thirst for knowledge gradually declined. I can say that I was falling into some sort of conformity. I wasn’t skipping breaks anymore, and after some time, I stopped coming early to work. And what didn’t help was the frequent interruptions during work. Now that these peers were friends, it wasn’t nice to ignore them. I spent too much time answering people’s questions and talking about things that after some time, I hardly had time to finish what I was supposed to get done. I simply had not enough time now. Opening a book wasn’t a priority for me anymore- and with all that was going on, I had little time for myself. Which meant little self growth was happening. For so long I sat on the thought of quitting. I applied to countless of places and wondered “what is going on?”. Is this what Designing with passion is like?
But it wasn’t all bad. Although I was working longer hours, I found a way to learn something new while doing so. Soundclound. Most people may not know this, but there’s a lot you can learn listening to the ideas and teachings of people. And I found that a great source for that was on soundcloud. I listened to lectures, news casts, interviews, radio stations …etc. It accounted for most of the things I learnt in the last couple of months.
I know that designing with passion means a lot of things. But to me, it means you always want to do your best. Perfectionism is a symbol. And without listening and attentively looking at the ideas that are presented out there, it would be almost impossible to feed that passion within you. We always strive to do our best when we are challenged with great ideas. And the best place to find those ideas may some times be just around you. If you’re willing to find them.