106 - Never Stop

What this episode covers

Making stuff automatically makes you better. Music and links from this episode Sofia 30 by Nuno Adelaida Internally Grateful (feat. Josh Büche & Jonee Whatley) by Captive Portal The Pet by Sebon Line-by-line notes INTRO You've probably heard of Jerry Seinfeld before If not though, he's an actor, comedian, and a writer He made the sitcom Seinfeld, with Larry David The reason I mention him  Is because he once told his method for becoming a better comedian It was simple really Write something every single day And write a cross on a calander for every day you do it You've got one goal Don't break the chain And never stop This is Ask a Designer Anything, and I’m Craig Burgess PLAY MID SONG I absolutely adore Seinfeld idea And it's something I've long since subscribed to myself I'm not as prescriptive as seinfeld I don't do something every day Unless I'm doing a silly 365 day challenge that is But the idea of doing things regularly for yourself in your spare time is something I'm mega passionate about You've probably noticed It's a running theme through my podcasts Because I think, especially for designers, designing something every day is a really easy way to get better without even trying When I look back at my first ever 365 day challenge When I designed a poster a day for 365 days I did it because I wanted to get better at making vector graphics and using illustrator It automatically worked, because of the volume of work I was producing The same idea applies to these podcasts Because I'm making one every day I'm automatically getting better at audio production, writing scripts, talking into a mic, reading scripts, the list goes on This is the very thing Seinfeld was getting at Just by writing every day, he got a little bit better every day  By the end of 365 days, he was a lot better The reason most peope don't do this Is 2 reasons 1, it's hard to stay consistent and to not just come home from work and watch TV And 2, most people don't like making rubbish stuff Because when you're never stopping, and making something every day, most of what you make will be rubbish And that's part of the reason for doing it too, to start to accept that sometimes your ideas aren't good, but you have to try them anyway It stops self limiting beliefs This is why Michael Beirut promotes this idea too, in a smaller way, for the students he teaches at university  He gets students to perform a design operation every day for 100 days One that you can complete every day so you don't give up It teaches you to work faster It teaches you to come up with ideas faster And it teaches you to never stop If I could get every design student in the world to make something every day for 365 days  I would Because I know from personal experience that they'll be so much better of a designer when they're finished Even Gary Vaynerchuk talks about a similar concept Of never stopping, and doing something every day So, there's 3 successful people here who have all discovered something that definitely works to make you a better designer Jerry Seinfeld, a very successful comedian Michael Beirut, a very successful designer And Gary Vaynerchuk, a very successful businessman Do I need to carry on?  Is that enough convincing for you to wake up tomorrow and start plotting your 365 day challenge?  The concept of never stopping is so simple And so powerful at the same time But it's a concept and ideology that so few people bother to even attempt If you want to be the best in the world A genuine world beater at your craft You need to work And work hard So if that's you Prove it And start now And never stop again OUTRO  This was AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess  Music featured in this episode was  Sofia 30 by Nuno Adelaida Internally Grateful (feat. Josh Büche & Jonee Whatley) by Captive Portal The Pet by Sebon For a line-by-line run down of this episode, go to askadesignernaything.com/ep106 I’m back...