My own worst critic...

Originally published at iam.anewlis. You can comment here or there.

A couple of months ago, artist Wayna contacted me via my myspace page inquiring about doing hers.  She'd found me via our mutual acquaintance, and my sista friend Honeysoul.  We completed her page pretty quickly, and i really dug how it turned out.  So did she.  So much so that she contracted with me to re-do her official website.  The catch was, it needed to be done within 2 weeks.  She needed to publicize her Grammy nomination.

This is not a post about design though... It's about me and my quirkiness.

I post on twitter from sun up to sun down about some non sense or another.  But you rarely see me publicizing that I've completed a website.  I have a lot of twitter friends that are baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad designers, developers, techies, etc. (not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good!).  I know, that I still have so much to learn.  But I let that completely overshadow the fact that I have learned a lot as well.  With every website I build I do it better than the last.  Still, I always manage to undercut myself.

My good friend (and fellow designer) and I recently had a discussion which led him to take a look at the website I'd just completed.  Immediately excuses started coming into my head in preparation for whatever criticism he might provide.  And boy did he bring it.  All in love mind you, he informed me of some things he saw, or would do differently.  IM after IM he was going on and on about it.  I was only moderately deflated, but definitely had to keep reminding myself that 1) these were his opinions 2) he was right on most accounts 3) he just wanted the best for me and my abilities 4) I need to learn how to accept criticism.

I never open myself up to criticism.  I run from it.  I know I can only get better from it.  I've just never been able to accept it.  I always end up feeling personally attacked.  So one of my quests this year is to open myself up to it.  Not just anyone's mind you, but people who I know have not only my best interest at heart, but also know what they are talking about ~ like my buddy El.  I know it's not going to be easy.  Truth be told, there isn't anything negative anyone can say to me that I probably haven't told myself.  But I also realize that the information I stand to gain is extremely beneficial.

Wayna's website [ Before ] [ After ]