How to get into the making mindset

Today I want to talk about something a little different. In fact, it isn’t a thing at all. It’s a way of thinking, a mindset if you will.

 

I’ve spent a lot of introspective time recently evaluating how I approach the world and why. The big conclusion of that time has been realising that I need to shift into what I’m calling a making mindset. It’s not something new, or revolutionary, I think it’s pretty similar to the idea of a growth mindset, but it is a big shift in how I work.

 

To give you some background as to how I think now, we have to step back into my childhood. Don’t worry this isn’t going to become too much of a therapy session.

 

I was labelled a ‘smart’ or ‘gifted’ kid at school – I’m not sure I actually ever was but it was what it was. That was pretty much the extent of my identity. I was expected to do well. If I raised my hand and gave a wrong answer I was genuinely laughed at and lost myself in a shame spiral. So, not hitting those academic targets first time wasn’t an option.

 

The work I was given before I went to uni never challenged me too much. I worked hard, but I didn’t have to.

 

So when I got to university and it was so much harder, and I was so much of a smaller fish, I had no coping methods. When I wasn’t instantly good at something my first instinct was to bail to protect myself from the potential shame and embarrassment. I was focused on an outcome because I’d never really had to learn how to learn.

 

That focus on an end goal rather than the doing and the learning has been central to how I’ve approached things right up until recently.

Now I want to pay close attention to what I’m doing not what I’m going to produce at the end of it all. That extends from this blog to my illustration, right the way into my proper job.

 

I spend the most of my time making the thing, rather than with the finished product, so doesn’t it make sense to make sure I’m enjoying that making. Plus, I know that if I focus on the process, on my own skills, on the making, that’s how I’m actually going to make better work.

 

That’s part of the reason I’ve pledged, to myself, to take on the rejection letters project. I’m going to focus on making and putting myself out there. In the process, I’m going to open myself up to rejection, I’m going to wear that failure like a badge of honour, to try to shake off some of the fear that’s held me back from just making the thing in the past.

 

I hope you can join me in the making mindset. Let’s just learn for the sake of learning, make for the sake of making.

Natalie