You are a designer, working on your full-time job or your freelance projects.
You go online, open X app. You see:
- John released his Framer template
- Fatma launches her "How To Make $100k As A Designer" course
- Gary starts his subscription model design service
- Laila is working on an AI product
- ...
- Nadia posts screenshots from her Stripe with $50k monthly sale.
Then, you look at yourself and feel like you are missing out.
You think you should be working on your framer template, course, UIKit, … all of it! Otherwise, you are falling behind!
From your perspective, you look at X as 1 thing, almost like a single person is doing it all. Then you look at yourself, doing only 1 thing.
FOMO crips in. You start to feel less of yourself and get demotivated, even depressed perhaps!
Sounds familiar? You are not alone! We all struggle with it.
In today's hyper-connected world, where social media paints our eyes and minds with a constant stream of achievements, updates, and seemingly perfect lives, it's easy to fall into FOMO-induced depression.
The fear of missing out on opportunities, experiences, and success can lead to comparison, anxiety, self-doubt and more...
I have a few ways of approaching this situation.
FIRST
Change your perspective!
Look at it at the individual level. 1 person usually does 1 thing first.
1 thing well!
Once it's successful, then it is easier to create a course on teaching that thing, or take out the components from it, and repackage them as a kit to sell.
These are the side outcomes of the 1 thing that doesn't really take that much effort. You have already covered most of it with your 1 thing.
Look again at that designer on X with this eye. You will see this pattern more often than not.
Find your 1 thing and focus on that.
Don't worry about the rest.
They will come naturally.
SECOND
Embrace the mindset of JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out) over FOMO
Instead of feeling bad about what you're not doing, focus on the thing you are doing well.
JOMO says, "Hey, let's be happy about what we're doing right now!" yes, a bit cringe!
You don't have to copy what everyone else is doing. You can focus on your own ideas and make them shine.
This mindset also helps us to use social media in a better way. We don't have to spend forever looking at other people's various stuff. We can choose the ones that are relevant to the 1 thing we are making and keep the focus on it without distractions. It is okay to unfollow and block people who are not truly relevant to you at where you are in your journey today.
I know it sounds like supernatural nonsense; saying "Just change the way to look at it!" However, the power of mindset is often overlooked. I encourage you to be open-minded, please.
THIRD
Stoic philosopher and emperor Epictetus says;
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."
This profound mindset emphasises that while we may not always have control over the events that occur in our lives, we always have the power to choose our responses to them.
Social media and people like this is going to be around us, we will be constantly exposed to these.
We have no control over what other people are doing, sharing, saying... What we have control over is our reaction to it. That goes through setting our Designer Mindset straight!
Conclusion
These are just a few ways to approach it.
To sum up;
- Changing your perspective from a collective effort to a single effort
- Embracing the JOMO by enjoying what you're doing without worrying about what everyone else is doing
- Taking the Stoic approach to taking control of how we react to the events happening in our lives that are out of our control