Self-development

We currently live in the age of endless possibilities. The only place limitation exists is in our minds.

In age and time, it’s possible to be a graphic designer in less than a week and even get a job in less than a month if you put your mind to it and put in the hard work also.

The pandemic has made the acquisition of skills so important that it is a must-have to stay relevant in this time and age.

And the good news is that there are tons of resources and tools out there for anyone to become anything you want.

What is graphic design?

Before we jump right into it Let’s, first of all, understand what graphic designing is. Graphic designing is basically visual communication with typography, iconography, illustrations, images colours and so on.

 The amazing thing about graphic designing is that communication can go beyond languages and words. You don’t have to be Spanish to understand a message in a design, it’s universal.

For example,  take a look at this simple design:

 when Paris was in chaos and war. 

Graphic designers used their skills to pass the message that peace should reign.

The letter “A”  represents the Eiffel tower in Paris.

  REASONS TO BECOME A GRAPHIC DESIGNER

1.BOOST YOUR MENTAL HEALTH: If you are a graphic designer you are going to be always creating graphics and you will become more creative as time goes on and creativity contributes to your mental wellbeing and that improves your life. 

Let us look at some other benefits of creativity:

• Expression and self-awareness
• Stress relief
• gives you a sense of purpose
• Improves your ability to focus
• Compel you to be a life-long learner

Just the creativity alone is worth it even though you don’t want it as a career. Let look at more reasons

2.IT WILL ALWAYS BE RELEVANT: Our dependencies on technology keep increasing and that means there will always be the need for graphic designing because the graphic is inseparable from the digital world

3.FLEXIBILITY: As a graphic designer you can work from any part of the world as long as you’ve got your internet connection and your laptop. You can even choose the type of project you want to work on.

4.SOURCE OF INCOME:  It’s like you will get paid for having fun and the better you become the higher your value. Freelancing gives the opportunity to work on different projects and that means an extra source of income.

We’ve seen some reasons to be a graphic designer now let us see how we can be a graphic designer in less than a week

HOW TO BE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER IN LESS THAN A WEEK

There are a lot of concepts and tools to learn how to use to become a great graphic designer. And being a graphic designer means you have to learn and practise a lot. In this article, we learnt that the fastest way to learn anything is by doing.

To learn anything you need to get your hands dirty. Practise gives experience and experience is the best teacher. 

CANVA

to become a graphic designer we can head on to this website called CANVA.

Canva is a website where you can design anything like infographic, logo, banner, business card, wedding invitation, birthday card and even social media designs like Facebook covers, Instagram post, Twitter post and many more.

 and also, there are a lot of templates to get you started on your journey on being a graphic designer. And what I love about this website is that it’s pretty easy for people like me who don’t have an eye for designing

There are more than enough tools in there to get you started.

The site also has tons of tutorials that will teach you about graphic designing and if you really put your mind to it and put in the work you will become a graphic designer in less than a week.

 It has never been this easy before. You can even start to make money because there are lots of templates you can edit and give to a client and you will learn as you go.

You can start with a free account but I recommend the pro version if you want to be serious about it and you can make a career out of the website

you can sign up for pro version which is better and affotable for the tools they are offering.

You can sign up with this link

Conclusion:  

Nothing good comes easy, it requires a lot of hard work, patience, consistent practise and more to be good at anything.

Fortunately for us, it has never been this easy before to learn a skill and acquire knowledge because the resources are out there for very low cost or no cost. 

I use Canva for all my designs and it saves me a lot of money – I don’t have to hire graphics designer, I will just pay myself –  and it also saves me from the headache of thinking too much of how to design because they did all the heavy lifting for us and you can use it to make money by selling the services to other people.

I”m working on creating a youtube video for this blog post so we can really see the practical aspect of things. And please guy if you know of any other website like Canva please comment in the section below so we can all learn together.

To learn things fast at this time we live in is a super-power. And your learning abilities can directly influence your earning abilities and also it increases your chances of you reaching your goals and improve your life.

 It’s essential now to learn how to learn things fast because – no matter your career- everything is constantly changing and evolving and without the skills to learn fast you will become outdated and would not be able to keep up(especially if you are in tech industry).

WHAT IS LEARNING?

According to Wikipedia, Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. (Imagine even plants learn).

Learning is the core foundation of personal growth, and it’s a habit that everyone should have, to achieve improvement in every aspect of one’s life.

BENEFITS OF LEARNING ANYTHING FAST

Before we talk about how we can learn anything fast let us see some of the benefits:

• You will stand out
• You will have unfair advantages over others
• You will be more productive 
• You will cope faster
• More money
• Make faster decisions

Anyone can learn how to be a fast learner as long as you put your mind to it and put in the work.

It’s like an exercise you can train yourself to learn anything fast and the good thing is that the more of your brain you use the more you will have to us

If you study the lives of great men and women that achieved extraordinary things on earth,  You will notice a mindset and approach they possess towards learning, which is, they are committed to live-long-learning; they learn constantly, which makes them masters of their games. 

  And this mindset is something we all should have because it opens our mind to new experiences and learning will not be seen as a hard task but an adventure.

Even when we face challenges or failure we will see it as an opportunity to learn from it and move on since we are lifelong learners.

And it makes the process of learning fast effective because learning is your lifestyle.

  WAYS TO LEARN THINGS FAST

1.DO NOT MULTITASK: learning is not an easy task; It requires absorbing new information, concepts and ideas. And studies found out that our brain performs better when we are focused on one thing.

If you focus a magnifying glass on a paper under the sun for some minute you will see the paper will gradually start burning, our mind is even more powerful than that when you focus on what you are learning – you become one with the object and learn faster but no fire. (Lol).

Actually, there is nothing like multitasking; it’s called switching of tasks back and forth and that hurt our productivity especially if we are learning new concepts or skills.

So just remember that: the quality of input determines your quality of retention. 

2. TAKE SHORT BREAKS: A study published in the journal Cognition concludes short breaks help keep your attention span on track. 

When you are learning something you would focus on the material for a certain period of time and when you do not take breaks you might become fatigued and lost motivation because of the boredom and tiredness

The Pomodoro technique helps with productivity and time management.

3. Always reflect on what you’ve learnt: New information and concepts don’t just stick to the mind except extra work are done like reflecting and thinking about what has been learned.

The constant reflecting and observations of the new information make it sticks – Repetition aids retention.

Reflection also includes testing yourself on the subject and asking yourself questions and providing the answer. Also going back to correct yourself on the concepts that are still over your heads. This process cements the knowledge.

4. IMPLEMENT: Learning includes both inputs and outputs. Inputs are the reading of books, taking courses, attending seminars, webinars and listening to podcasts – it’s basically the intake of information.

While outputs include the reflection, implementation and sharing(teaching) of the concept. So many people focus, mainly on the input and do little or no output but it doesn’t work that way. You actually need more of the output.

“For true mastery, you need to focus more on the OUTPUT, rather than the INPUT“

Nishant Kasibhatla

learning is incomplete if what has been learnt is not implemented. For the reason for learning in the first place is to implement and practise it.

 For example, no amount of books you read on how to ride a bicycle will teach you how to ride a bicycle without actually implementing the lesson on a bicycle. 

So also in graphic designing, programming, writing, skating, driving, digital marketing, and all other professions.

THE GREAT AIM OF EDUCATION IS NOT KNOWLEGE BUT ACTION

Hebert spencer

5. Share(Teaching): this is one of the best ways to learn anything fast. It’s effective because you can’t teach what you don’t know just like you can’t give what you don’t have.

So it forces you to really know the concepts.

When you teach you to get to know the concepts or skills more and more.

There are different ways you can do the outputting(implementation and teaching) like teaching what you’ve learnt on a blog(like me now) or a youtube channel or even if it teaching a non-living thing(just don’t do that where people will see you otherwise you might end up in psychiatry hospital) and make sure it’s in your own words and understanding.

Conclusion: 

Like physical exercise, we all can train our brain muscles to learn anything fast and effective. Our mind is the most powerful tool but it wouldn’t work for us if we don’t do the work.

Remember we take in information and we have to put the information to use and that is what will guarantee the information or skill to stick in your head.

If there are any other points that you feel should be added to these ones please comment it in the comment section below. 

adapted from this video

In human history, this time we live in – the information age –  so far has been the best time to be a human. We can all see how magical this age is, with the use of computers and other gadgets.

somebody can literally start a career and become an expert from home with just basically, internet connection, patience and hard work.

Technology has made profound effects in our lives and it’s now becoming an indispensable tool in our world. COVID-19 Pandemic has shown the world How important the digital age is now and in the future. COVID-19 is like a wake-up call for all of us, in this context.

So it’s quite important to know how to get the most out of this digital age so that you can lead a wonderful and Amazing life regardless of where in the world you are.

WHAT IS THE INFORMATION/DIGITAL AGE? 

 According to Mariam Webster dictionary:

“The information or digital age is the modern age regarded as a time in which information has become a commodity that is quickly and widely disseminated and easily available especially through the use of computer technology”

The information or digital age is self-explanatory, simply put, it’s a period that is based on the information and a period when almost everything is digitalized.

It’s the period we are in right now and it’s has come to stay, So it’s better to jump in the moving train. And the best part is that the information is free or very cheap, And the skills learnt can also be monetised and help others too. And it goes beyond just making money – as a matter of fact, money is just a by-product when you offer value to people – you can contribute to humanity with your knowledge and skills. 

Ways to get the most of the information age

The freedom and advantages of this information age definitely surpass the disadvantages but nonetheless there are disadvantages and side effects that came with this information age. 

And with the awareness, action and discipline one can minimize the side effects and maximize the advantages.

Some of the disadvantages such as too many irrelevant contents and information, entertainment, social media – which makes people unconsciously compare their lives with others.Etc.

Despise the amazing power of this age, it can also pose a threat for most people because it’s highly addictive. And the addiction makes it easy to be distracted and not achieving any things as days turn to weeks and weeks turn to months and months to years

But there is a solution or a way around it and that is :

Being a producer instead of  just a consumer:

To get the most of this information/digital age, it’s imperative to have a producer’s mindset rather than a consumer’s mindset.

It’s quite easy even effortless to be forced unconsciously to have the consumer’s mindset because we are bombarded by ads everywhere on the internet and we contact the disease called FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out), We want to be the first to watch the most recent programs, listen to the most recent songs, like the photo of a celebrity.

And consumerism starts setting in, we want to be the first to buy the latest product of any kind, the list is just endless.

All these things are not bad to indulge in, it’s just that moderation is essential and having the producer’s mindset will help. 

 Producer’s mindset

The producer’s mindset is basically using the internet for more informational and educational reasons in order to learn a skill or set of skills like:

• Contents creation or blogging
• Graphic designing 
• Web development
• Writing
• Digital marketing
• Cloud computing
• Artificial intelligence
• Sales leadership
• Analysis
• Translation
• Mobile app development
• People management
• Video production
• Audio production
• UX design
• SEO/SEM marketing
• Blockchain
• Industrial design
• etc

And rendering the skills as services to clients or using the skills to create digital products. Being a producer basically mean havings marketable skills to sell so that you will keep adding value to the world. And they always will be more consumers than they will ever be producers, so you should use that fact to your advantage. Another thing we need to do is,

Having the growth mindset rather than the fixed mindset:

 Carol Dweck, a psychologist made a profound research and noticed that there are two kinds of mindset: the growth mindset and fixed mindset. Basically, the growth mindset is having the attitude of a constant learner, Alway improving and eager to learn new things and  Seeing learning as the goal and not the means to an end.

While the fixed mindset is the exact opposite, the people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them.

  Now how can this affect what we are talking about? In order to utilize this information age, it’s paramount to have the growth mindset, because the world we live in today is constantly changing, new technologies every day, new concepts and new ways of doing things.

Without having the growth mindset the person will easily be frustrated and wouldn’t really thrive in this modern age and would become complacent in his/her field. The day you stop learning, you start dying. And if you keep on learning and becoming better – which is a good attitude to have in this age –  you will always retain that producer’s mindset and will be at the top of your game. Another thing to do is

Being action-oriented:

“Action is the truest measure of intelligence”

– Napoleon Hills.

Another important factor to consider in utilizing this information age is putting in the work. 

Action is very important, It’s the only controllable variable will have in attaining success. 

Our big dreams and determination are predicated on our actions.

Without action, all other factors are irrelevant because the reason for learning in the first place is to put in what you’ve learnt to practise. No matter how talented you are, you wouldn’t get anywhere if you don’t practise what you are learning, as a matter of fact, learning is incomplete without implementation of what you’ve learnt. 

And we must learn to enjoy the action because there is no other way around it and enjoying the hustling and the practise set you apart from everyone and will lead you to mastery. 

“When it comes down to it, nothing trumps execution.”

Gary Vaynerchuk.

Conclusion:

Sadly COVID-19 brought some damages, people losing their jobs and global recession and many other terrible things. But It’s also an eye-opener for us all because for almost every adversity there is a seed of opportunity.

And it’s also a wake-up call for us all on how Technology and the information age is important and will continue to be important in many years to come. So it’s essential for us to use this information age constructively instead of destructively, we should use it to empower ourselves, sell our skills, network and make the world a better place by making ourselves better. 

If you have other ideas on how to utilize this information age or you want to elaborate on any of the points, please share in the comment below so we all can learn. – thanks.