Hii - happy new year! 👋
I hope y’all survived the small talk at work last few days.
How were the holidays?
Yeah I know, last year was so….!!
Any new year resolutions?
Should we circle back to that thing we talked…??🫠
But no really.
How was last year for you? If I were to force you to go beyond a word or a sentence, what would you tell me.
More importantly, what would you tell yourself?
Stories we tell ourselves..
My first job was at a B2B company providing cloud data storage solutions. It was so complex to understand, let alone try and simplify it for interfaces. I needed constant support from senior designers. To feel competent, I took up writing content guidelines and organising women’s day initiatives for our company.
I was a fresh grad designer with imposter syndrome and minimal domain knowledge.
That was the story I told myself for a long time.
Until a while back, I reframed that experience. I changed the story I was telling myself (and others).
Looking back, I learned how to learn about a new domain, which made learning about domains like banking and dating very easy for my future jobs.
I worked with a very experienced team who taught me to stay grounded, and focus on my craft.
It was also first signs of my strengths - setting up processes and building communities for women.
We cannot change an experience, but we can reframe our narrative. We can handpick stories we want to carry forward.
I have come to realize stories we tell ourselves are powerful. So how do you tell your story?
Telling your story
Look back at your career and the series of jobs you have had, and ask yourself - what stories are you telling yourself.
Don’t overcomplicate it. Take a paper or a doc and make three columns -
jobs you had, what you learned, and how it adds up to your bigger story.
Plotting the next chapters
No matter how many jobs you have had, consider it the very first scene of your play.
Now decide how far you wanna look forward. It could be just the coming year, or 3 years or 5 years. And ask yourself..
The what - You as a protagonist, what are you trying to optimizing for? It could be financial growth, work-life balance, changing careers, learning new skills, title upgrade.
The who - Who are the people helping you?
The how - What are some tangible steps you need to get there?
Metrics - What does success look like?
I hope this as a sign to revisit the stories you are telling yourself about your career, and start plotting some new ones. Very excited to be a part of them.✨
📺 Watching
I have been binging Silicon Valley against the backdrop of Figma x Adobe deal and Open AI fiasco and it has been so much fun.
📕 Reading
I was saving the sequel of one of my favorite book last year, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yaros for January. I am 30% in and maybe I had too high expectations so it feels a little less engrossing. Though I am loving spending time with familiar characters.
🎧 Listening
I am into Doja Cat now? This wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card!
🌸 Being
Going through a change in my life, and in general January being my birthday month, I am spending a lot of time reflecting. Some might even call it my self-isolation era.
📸 Moment
I had scheduled myself some flowers in November and totally forgot about it. Got them yesterday and it totally my day.✨
Talk next week,
Chhavi x