Evolving Over Time (Time Series Part 3)

This week I’m going to write a 4-part series on “time” where I tackle the concept from different perspectives.

In Part 1, I discuss how Time Makes No Sense.

In Part 2, I break down the value of Extra Time.

Here’s Part 3.


I make this one mistake over and over again.

It’s an easy fix. I just have to commit to doing the work.

My confession: I notoriously take notes and then never read them.

Sigh.

Are you in that boat?

In our professional lives, you can review some of the “notes” you have taken by rereading your old cover letters and resumes. If you are a designer, you’ll also have a portfolio.

Trust me when you say, you’ll learn a lot about yourself and hopefully, appreciate how far you’ve come since.

This morning, I got up and reread my notes. I wanted to see how I evolved since I was a bright-eyed kid thinking that a college degree was all I needed to unlock happiness (it wasn’t).

This exercise provided me an opportunity to sit down and reflect on what I have done over the years and what I have become since.

And I’m still becoming (shoutout to Auntie Michelle).

It was fun to look back at old projects and to see previous experiences, but what was most fascinating to me was to look at my “About Me” pages. This is where I really got to see the way I thought of myself and how I wanted to convey this to others.

There’s a couple of lines that I wanted to share that really show my evolution.

c. 2009: From Portfolio

I am not a resume. I am not a curriculum vitae, nor can the sum total of my human experience be captured in any one document. Those items can only list what I have done with my life, but not who I have become with new experiences.

c. 2012: Bio Portfolio Website

Being from Virginia means a lot to me,… a whole lot. Growing up, we always felt too northern to be southern and too southern to be northern [1].  This regional and cultural dichotomy taught me a very important lesson: be yourself. There was never a particular way you had to act being from the middle of the east coast so I learned to simply be who I am.

c. 2014: About Me Updated Portfolio Website

Writing an “About” section is always weird because everything you would usually read in it is old news. Some stuff may be true but we exist in a constant state of change and change is the only thing that is inevitable in life.  You can’t change, change.  So instead of telling you what I’ve done and where I’ve been, I find it more interesting to tell you about where I plan to go. So here’s my manifesto.

I want to change the world for the better and I’m crazy enough to try.  Anything you do once is nothing but a drop of water in the ocean. Do it several times and it amounts to a bucket of water in the ocean. That’s better but still not impactful. If you want to have true impact, you have to get many others to do something with you over time. It’s when we work together that we truly make a difference.

c. 2017: From Personal Portfolio

Whether it is not being afraid of doing a little extra work, learning to not sell yourself short, the value of repurposing work, the importance of passion within to your organization, having the resolve to persevere through failure, finishing what you start, getting your work to a boarder audience, delivering on the customer needs first, or how to keep the motivation necessary for long term projects, I’ve learned all of these lessons because I’ve failed miserably at something. But that is OK.

The real lessons for entrepreneurs are not found in the failures, they are found in what you do next.

c. 2020: About This Newsletter

I’m a leader in social enterprise and design working to make the world a bit better today and much better for future generations.

I think today, I’m a little less idealistic but more rooted in my core purpose. It was a fun exercise rereading some of my “professional notes” and I suggest you do the same.

You can also view some of my past portfolio sites.

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