ux | work | life matters

“Beat everybody to your inconvenient truth”

That was one of the quotes I wrote down this lunchtime as I listened to an episode of the Mel Robbins podcast about imposter syndrome. There was another really good one which was “You can diffuse the imposter syndrome if you just accept where you’re at” which really struck a cord. So here goes:

My inconvenient truth and where I’m at is that I’ve never done any kind of book launch, or anything proactive at all for that matter, to promote my book since it came out in early 2020.

It’s partly due to that when the book came out I had a newborn and getting the book to the printer took everything out of me. It’s also partly due to covid grabbing hold of the world a couple of months later. Mostly though it’s due to imposter syndrome and feeling like promoting it a year or two after it came out would just be a bit weird. I sort of felt that I’d missed the boat and I’ve beaten myself up about it.

Screw that.

This year I turned 44 and it’s soon 4 years since the book came out so in the spirit of celebrating 4s, and the fact that I still believe storytelling is such a crucial skill to master for all aspects of UX and product design, I’m going to do some belated book promotions. Starting with this:

I’m about to read my book again, cover to cover, and I’d love for you to join me.

There are 14 chapters and close to 400 pages of it but I’ve been told it’s quite a nice read. If you disagree please tell me 😃 And if you’d like to join me and read a chapter a week and perhaps even discuss some of them over Zoom or similar, then you can sign up here.

Also, what’s your inconvenient truth, and where you’re at that you need to accept? No need to share it publicly if you don’t want to but have a think. As the Mel Robbin’s episode talks about, we all have a reason for being in “the room” and there is always something that others can learn from us, even if they are way further ahead. So if imposter syndrome is holding you back, let’s sod it together and go do that thing we really want to do.

Here is the link to join the reading group, and the link to the Mel Robbins episode – it’s a good one.

Ps. It doesn’t have to be perfect to start. The ‘g’ in ‘storytelling’ is missing in my photo but I’ve not yet learnt to be a fan of taking photos so this one is good enough

Have you read these?