02 Mar Begin again

It’s an amazing feeling to begin afresh. I try to do this daily and I think it’s a technique you can apply to any situation.

I don’t like to see it as ‘starting over’ because with that comes the baggage that before this there was something to regret. I always prefer to ‘begin again’ which to me means that you acknowledge everything that came before with no bonds and simply move forward with more understanding.

You can start small by clearing your computer desktop of folders or go one step further and erase and reinstall your whole machine!

In design, you often have to face this when you hit a blank wall and can’t solve a problem. This is the moment I walk the dog or go for a run and soon the solution presents itself.

A more stressful occurrence is when you are eight hours into a job and bang – the InDesign file crashes and corrupts. The situation clearly calls for a hissy-fit but experience has taught me it’s at this moment you breath out, smile quietly to yourself and begin again – this time doing it in less than two hours.

Today’s “begin again” moment for me is a career change – for the last 7 years I have been running my own agency. This has been a huge part of my life having to be hands on with the client work while installing new sinks, painting office walls and remembering to take the bin out.

I’m leaving that all behind to pursue new challenges. What they are is mostly unknown but that’s what makes it so fun.

Today I begin again with this new WordPress website. I have big plans to get my portfolio up and start sharing all I’ve learnt over the last 20 years.

I’ve only had a few days off work and I’m already getting a bit fidgety. Creative energy is coursing through me to build this site and right now, I’m all charged up.

But, for my first post, I will end it here and start getting busy with other more pressing items. As the quote above says “Work is never finished, only abandoned” and I’m very much prepared to be in it for the long haul.

R.