Muse-letter from @axbom
I'm finding my voice and it's an awesome feeling
I’m looking at a crazy week. Flying to Lisbon in a few hours for the UXLx conference. Attending two workshops on Wednesday. Doing my own talk on the main stage on Thursday. Doing at least 7 interviews during the event for UX Podcast. Oh yeah, and did I mention I'm releasing the English version of my e-book about the AceAwe Experience Model today?
Yes, of course it's free.
But that's not what I wanted to talk about. What I want to discuss is how I feel so great about all this.
You may or may not know I attended a course in the autumn of 2015 with the intent of becoming a certified coach. If you want to catch up on that you can read my previous muse-letter (yes, that's what I'm calling these newsletters and you can't stop me). The certification is certainly something I am still pursuing.
Well, to practice what I preach I've also hired my own coach. After only four sessions the results have been beyond anything I would have expected. I am now much more confident about my goals, helping me more easily make decisions that will bring me closer to reaching them. The effect is that I'm taking the time to stop and reflect more, which (yes, this is the kicker) allows me to move much, much, much faster towards the objectives I've set for myself.
The secret ingredient: I'm not letting myself deviate from my path as often anymore.
Early this year I set up some goals for myself relating to lifting weights, creating a startup and writing a book. It was a way of illustrating for myself how I would break this down across the year. What I had failed to do is align these with my long-term goals. Although all the tasks are still something very much on my radar, what I've come to realize in the sessions with my coach is that I hadn't spent enough time thinking about what activities bring me closer to the person I want to be in ten years.
So I did a visualization exercise and saw myself sitting at the summer house deeply entranced in words on a screen.
Really, it's something I knew full well in my teens and early twenties but has since then faded. I want to write books. I love writing. Love it. Both work-related stuff and non-fiction. So that's what I need to do more of to be where I want to be. Where I feel my best.
I had already decided to write a book this year. Fine. But working with my coach I realized I am already a writer. It's mind-bogglingly difficult to admit to myself. I wrote a novel when I was 19. I have a poetry collection. I've compiled blog posts into books. In fact the number of blog posts alone could potentially account for multiple books.
Which brings us to today. I've been meaning to translate my e-book about my AceAwe Experience Model to English for more than two years. After one session with my coach it took me three weeks to get it done (read that again: 3 weeks). So, instead of just writing a book this year I'm releasing two e-books (one more coming this autumn about accessibility) and writing my "big one" about UX. Oh yeah, and re-releasing my old novel in iBooks and Kindle formats. My non-fiction vein will also get to flow more next year.
How is that for results?
Having someone to cheer you on. It's... well, everyone should have that.
Anyway, that's what I wanted to share. If you want that free e-book it's right here:
Per Axbom
Be curious, and thank you for your support.
Per
P.S.: If you want some more insights into the journey I've made over the past year I actually was interviewed recently and a lot of this stuff came up.
Scott Ryan-Hart
P.S. 2: You may have signed up for this newsletter in Swedish back in the day. Moving on, I will only have one newsletter in English. Besides the obvious reasons of reach and saving time, I'm more frequently finding my way back to the voice I had in school and growing up in other countries - it’s a special thing.
