Let Me Change Your Mind
Discover more from Field Trip
Field Trip is a homebase for the research and references that inform the work and life of designer Lauren Scarlett.
[RESEARCH ©FT]
The fear of changing your mind seems to stunt people when it comes to starting things; as if backtracking, pivoting or discarding things are somehow shameful acts and not a very normal part of the process when you’re building something.
I was thinking about removing a lot of the old posts from here because it’s changed so much from when I started it, but decided it’s quite nice for people to see the development. It took me well over a year to hit my stride with writing and for it to gain its recent momentum. I would hate for anyone who’s new here to see I’m on post 43 and think it’s been a smooth ride. If you read back far enough (please don’t) you’ll find a lot of stuff I started to do, stuff I did a u-turn on, and a lot of stuff I completely forgot I set out to do. I’ve stopped and started and changed my mind a thousand times and will likely continue to do so. At this point I’m proudly inconsistent.
Almost every entrepreneurial type will shove consistency down your throat and while it’s key in some contexts, I personally think we’re all inherently inconsistent as humans and shouldn’t try to fight it. Things happen when they happen. I wish I could say I schedule half an hour every morning to write or have set days to do certain things during the week but I don’t. I write when I’m in the middle of a client job I need to get done, or when I’m out somewhere and have an idea (god bless the notes app). I write about an hour before I post a lot of the time with no idea of what I want to say when I start. And within that space of an hour the article goes through it’s own process, often ending up miles away from the initial idea but I sparked four other ideas as I was going. Everything’s always operating on a constantly changing cycle.
I launched a new project called WETSUIT yesterday after spending two days thinking about and designing it. I haven’t thought it through at all. Which is new for me. But I know there’s no use in trying to control its evolution. I spent over three months developing Field Trip, obsessing over every detail, causing myself a lot of unnecessary stress before I’d even put out one post. So I’m excited by the fact that I haven’t overthought something for once. Perfectionism used to have me in a choke hold. But I’ve come to learn that a half-baked idea existing in the world is better than a grand idea existing only inside my head.
Changing your mind a million times is actually really fun. How boring to know what something is going to look like, feel like, sound like, before you’ve even started.
Let Me Change Your Mind
wow, just what i needed to read. realising other people find consistency challenging has been very reassuring, thank you!
Excited for Wetsuit Radio!!