Understanding your strengths as a designer

It’s common to think our strengths as a person are things that we’re naturally excellent at and weaknesses are things that you are not great at.

However, it’s time to reframe this thinking. Strengths are activities that you enjoy and make you feel strong. You might not be good at an activity right now, but love doing it. This doesn’t make it your weakness.

Strengths are things that we really enjoy doing, we do them as we find them fun, we get fulfilment at this activity, we might find it challenging but we’re learning and enjoy the challenge. The challenge gives us energy. You don’t have to be good at a certain activity straight away for it to be one of your strengths.

At the same time, you could be excellent at an activity such as presenting, but you don’t look forward to doing it. It saps all your energy. You don’t feel fulfilled and don’t feel like you’re learning anything. Is this really a strength if it weakens you?

Write down activities you do day to day and think about how they make you feel at the end of them. This will give you a good guide of what you can consider your strengths and weaknesses.

When planning our goals in 2022, let’s reframe what we consider our strengths and weaknesses. If we focus on our strengths, this is where we have the greatest leverage and strength for growth. You will learn the most and grow the most in the areas where you are strong.

When it comes to visual design, and being inside Figma, I love it, I feel fulfilled, I look forward to creating more mock-ups, I love how easy it is to see your constant growth through the constant iterations.

Lastly, without trying new experiences this year how will we discover our new strengths and superpowers? I encourage you to try at least one new activity you wouldn’t have thought of trying or doing.

It’s okay if you fail and make mistakes, it’s about learning more about ourselves and challenging ourselves to grow as a person.