Everything isn't always great, and it's OK to admit that. Sometimes.

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Music and links from this episode

Lunar Dunes by Spinning Clocks

Anti-Saloon League Midnight Mystery by Fields Ohio

Nothing Like Captain Crunch by Broke For Free

Line-by-line notes

Being British has its advantages

We don't have the endless optimism of the Americans

We're definitely more realists than optimists

I think it's the dour weather

That sours our mood

Today's episode has a very melancholy mood

And not because I'm in a melancholy mood either

Everything isn't great all of the time

And it's OK to admit that

This AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess.

MUSIC

I will be honest though

I really couldn't be bothered with this podcast today

I spent all last night making a business idea, writing and building a website in 3 hours

That's online now by the way if you want to check it out

It's at whyismywebsiteslow.co.uk

After last night's late night

The last thing I want to do tonight is more things that require me to think hard

But here I am

Recording this podcast

And speaking to you now

Things aren't always perfect

And I think it's OK to admit that

It's more than OK to admit that

Social media is definitely skewing this opinion that we always have to be great

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram especially is a carefully edited edition of somebody's life

It all looks good when somebody's life is reduced down to a couple of photos on the internet

But when we sit flicking through that kind of thing

And everybody else's life looks more perfect than ours

It's hard not to feel a little bit ungrateful about your own life

Why is my life not perfect like their perfect life on Instagram?

The thing is though, it is

Your life is just as perfect as theirs

No matter how happy they look in that photo they just took when they got out of bed

Five minutes before they were as miserable as sin and didn't want to get out of bed

We all suffer from the same things

The same highs and the same lows

And today, I'm here to tell you that's OK

This applies to everything in life, but especially with design

When you're designer, you're constantly looking at other designer's work

And it's hard to look at their work

And not feel inferior to all the better designers out there

I feel like this all of the time

I wish I could be more like Michael Beirut

And I wish I could draw properly like all the amazing illustrators on the internet

But the same thing applies

You're looking at a carefully crafted portfolio designed to make you think that designer is amazing

It doesn't show behind the scenes at the work that we've all done

Those design jobs that we don't put in our portfolios because they're absolutely terrible

It's OK to feel inferior to them, but remember that you're not

Every designer has their off days, their off weeks, even their off years

Every designer goes through a period of not feeling inspired anymore

And questioning whether they're past it, or not good enough, or never going to be as good as insert any famous designer

If you think like that, you'll never be good enough

As long as you pursue a life long mission to be better than you was yesterday

That's good enough

Everything isn't always great

And that's good enough too

Perfection sounds nice

But it just doesn't exist

MUSIC

This was AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess

Music featured in this episode was:

Lunar Dunes by Spinning Clocks

Anti-Saloon League Midnight Mystery by Fields Ohio

Nothing Like Captain Crunch by Broke For Free

For a line by line run down of this episode, go over to askadesigneranything.com/ep119

Thanks for listening

I'm back tomorrow

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