Look at the image above. Majestic, isn’t it? He’s spreading his powerful wings and soaring across the sky, confident in his own ability to fly. But where does he get that confidence? No bird is born KNOWING how to fly; otherwise we’d see chicks fluttering all over the place as soon as they hatched.

The truth is simple, yet amazingly profound: every bird learns how to fly because it dares to fall.

When you think about it, it’s actually quite mind-numbing. Falling doesn’t just mean being hurt; for a young chick high up in a tree, falling means the absolute and final end. And yet it is willing to risk its very life to learn how to soar the skies.

I bet you’re never going to look at any bird again without a sense of awe, are you?

In your life, you may not have such a huge risk involved in any one move you make (and if you do, please don’t make that move simply because I told you to. I’d hate to find out I caused the death of one my readers). But you may have some secret goal or desire that you’ve been holding dear in your heart; a wish that you don’t dare express or reach for because you fear the consequences of failure.

Here’s what I think: you can only be considered to have failed if you’ve stopped trying to succeed.

There is nothing wrong in falling flat on your face the first time you do something. Many geniuses of our world have failed miserably during their first few attempts before succeeding in what made them famous in the first place. Thomas Edison, inventor of the light-bulb, once famously said: “I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” In fact, I highly recommend reading some other quotes of his here (and perhaps keep one or two of them near you as inspiration).

I wrote an article previously about how bad design is good for you (which you can read here ). While I wrote that in the context of design, the message is applicable across the board: failure is a much better teacher than success. Although I’ve never seen any proof of this, I’m absolutely certain that the ancient Greek civilization (and other cultures who celebrated learning) had no negative perception regarding failure. I think they would have seen it as a necessary step to learn something new. It’s just that in our present world, failure is seen as something bad, something negative, something to be avoided at all costs. While some failures are indeed bad, for the most part, failure is more profitable than success.

Every one of you is amazing. Every one of you is a phenomenal success waiting to happen. But that can only happen when you dare to be a phenomenal failure first.

Related posts:

1. Thoughts on Getting Back on the Wagon I usually take time to write my posts. Being a timetable obsessed person, I plan when I’m going to write...
2. Thoughts on Finding Your Optimum Schedule As I'm typing this, I'm behind in my tasks for 3 days. I've not slept in 24 hours, and sounds...
3. 500+ Sources for Design Inspiration, and One That Beats Them All A massive list of inspiration sources for graphic design and web design for anyone who is having a block, or...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As I’m typing this, I’m behind in my tasks for 3 days. I’ve not slept in 24 hours, and sounds are slightly dulled. I also may or may not be dying from an overdose of caffeine.

When I first started managing my own time (after leaving a 9-5 job), I was doing regular daylight hours without problem. But I noticed that as time passed by, I was working later and later. I decided to switch to a night-time schedule. I would wake up at around 3 in the evening, have what might be referred to as lunch, get some miscellaneous tasks done, and then start work at around 10 in the night, until about 6 the next morning, at which point I’d have myself a good breakfast, relax for a little bit, and then head to bed.

It was the perfect life. I was at the peak of my efficiency, even more so considering how few disturbances happen at 3 in the morning. I could avoid working during the hottest times of the day (it can get pretty bad here, and the abundance of concrete around my house isn’t helping), and work when it’s nice and cool and quiet. My perfect environment. Anyone I needed to talk to was an email away, and I could interact with my family during the evenings anyway.

Problem is, I could never maintain it for longer than a week. The weekend would come and there’d be some plan made for the morning, and I’d force myself to stay awake for longer than I usually do. I’d then end up looking like something the cat dragged in. The cycle would be utterly destroyed, and I’d lose a day or two worth of productivity.

It also doesn’t help that my workload is very fluid; there are times when I’m free enough to relax and curl up with a good book, and there are times when I don’t have time to breathe. Don’t get me wrong, I love the job. I love the adrenaline rush of the deadlines and the last-minute scrambles. It’s why I got into this line in the first place. But the fluidity of it makes it challenging to plan a routine, especially where sleep is concerned.

If you were reading this hoping to find some pointers on how to manage your own time, I’m going to have to disappoint you. It’d be hypocritical of me to give tips on scheduling when I’m still finding solid ground. I CAN, however, tell you a few things I’ve learned along the way:

• Give yourself breathing space. If your brain tells you ‘but you can do more on that day, I think you can schedule a few more tasks in’, do NOT listen to it.
• Accept that life is like a giant out-of-control machine that’s throwing wrenches all over the place, and that chances are one of those wrenches is going to destroy your perfect, shiny, schedule.
• What works for everyone else may not work for you. And what works for you may not be what everyone else approves of.
• If you schedule, schedule EVERYTHING. Work, fun, social activities, family, even periods of stillness. Otherwise you can be certain that some things are going to fall to the side.
• The act of delaying one scheduled task to make way for another is not something that should be done lightly. If you get into the habit of it, it’s as good as not having a schedule at all.
• If your work is not finished within the time you’ve allocated, it is not a failure. It is simply a lesson learnt. Make a note of it, schedule in some extra time down the road (maybe the next day) to finish it, and if you’re doing it again in the future, remember to schedule more time for it in the first place.

And for those of you who are new to the crazy world of scheduling, I have some sagely advice for you: you are going to make mistakes. You are going to overschedule. You are going to crash and burn. Repeatedly. And painfully. It’s part of the learning process, and you’ll emerge on the other side a better person for it. Trust me.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve some catching up to do.

Related posts:

1. Thoughts on Getting Back on the Wagon I usually take time to write my posts. Being a timetable obsessed person, I plan when I’m going to write...
2. Tying Tighter Shoelaces: 10 Tips to Increase Productivity at Home To a runner, tying tigher shoelaces may help shave off a few milliseconds from his time, which could mean the...
3. Connecting with the Moment Productivity is good. More productivity is better. That's what I usually preach on this blog, but sometimes we tend to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Do you have that one friend?

You know the one I’m talking about. The one that always complains and whines about everything, from airport delays to food service to his job. You’ve not heard him say anything good in a long time. Anything you bring up in a conversation is met with a barrier of scepticism. I’ve got a few friends like that, and I once asked one of them about their attitude. His response was that he’s been through a hard life and he’s known hardship that I couldn’t even imagine, and so the scepticism and cynicism are necessary walls of self-defence.

Absolute and utter bullshit.

Don’t believe what these people are saying for one second. No matter how hard one person’s life is, there are always a hundred people somewhere in the world who have it harder than they do. Heck, considering the economic state of the world, the famine crisis in Somalia, and the natural disasters sweeping through so many parts of the earth, you could bump that number up to a million and still be accurate.

And secondly, strength isn’t about showing your scars to everyone and attempting to impress people with how much you’ve been through. That’s showmanship. Strength is holding your head high with a smile on your face after you’ve been through hell, knowing that you survived it and you came out a better person. It’s knowing that you’ve dealt with something so severe, and now you can deal with 99% of what life throws at you without batting an eyelid.

When people claim that hardship made them bitter, remember this: hardship made them stronger. THEY made themselves bitter.

You don’t need to surround yourself with showmanship. It does nothing for you, and in fact witnessing the constant never-ending drama is exhausting. Cut them out of your life, and surround yourself with people who are positive. Positive energy is beautiful in the sense that it multiplies when you share it. I made the change a few years back and I was amazed at how much of a difference it made in my life. Now whenever I see negativity around me, I move to cut it off.

So if you’re one of my friends and you’re wondering why I suddenly unfriended you on Facebook, now you know.

Related posts:

1. You are the Bomb You. Yes, you. Reading this right now. Do you know someone awesome? Your mother who can handle a full time...
2. Thoughts on Getting Back on the Wagon I usually take time to write my posts. Being a timetable obsessed person, I plan when I’m going to write...
3. Hello, World! My first post! I thought it'd only be right to introduce myself to you first....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I came across this video a while back. It’s a story about two mothers dealing with their individual tragedies during the 911 attacks in USA, and how they reached across an unspeakably large divide to connect with each other. I always meant to share it with you guys, but somehow the right context never showed up. I’m still not sure this is it, but the video got me thinking about my take on forgiveness.

Memory lane is a rocky road.

Around that time, I happened to come across someone from my childhood. Most of you won’t know this, but during my childhood, I was somewhat of a victim of bullying. I say somewhat because in hindsight, my case wasn’t nearly as bad as that of other children that I’ve read about, but nevertheless there was a lot of pent-up hate in me. Anyway, I came across one of the bullies, now grown up and taking a class with me in college. He recognized me, and after a few awkward glances, came over and introduced himself. He then stunned me by apologizing for all that he had done when he was younger.

I have to admit, I was torn between forgiving him, and wanting to see how many times I could kick him in the nuts before someone pulled me off of him. Reluctantly, I chose the former. We said our niceties and I went home after class. At home, I realised that I was still thinking about the bullying, and that meant that I’d yet to truly let it go. Deciding to try a different approach, I closed my eyes, recalled every bad memory I had of being bullied, and let it go. No fuss, no drama. I just let it float out of my chest.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably expecting a nice fluffy paragraph of how I felt lighter, and I smiled more, etc. Heck no. What I got was an adrenaline rush that lasted 22 hours and a permanent grin on my face. Crazy, right?

Wait, what?

I’m not making that up, I swear. And when you sit down and think about it, it makes perfect sense. Forgiveness is a three-part scenario. The part we’re most familiar with is the 2^nd part, where the burden of our negative emotions and grudges lift, and we become more peaceful. But there’s the 1^st part which I think is even more important, and it can be summed up like this:

Whether or not you choose to forgive someone is your decision. The POWER to make that choice lies with you.

You have to choose to forgive someone before you can forgive them. And being aware of that choice, that simple yet profound state of being, gives you the power to gather all your hurt and pain and cast it aside. Someone else may have inflicted this pain on you, or caused you to develop these emotions, but it is by your hand and your will that they are cleansed.  This, my dear reader, is the amazing power of pre-forgiveness.

And then what?

Ah, now there is that void where the hurt used to be, the great expanse of neutral land in your heart where your grudges used to fester. This is where post-forgiveness comes in.  You can choose to gloat in victory, to celebrate your magnanimity. You can choose to continuously remind yourself of this day, where you were a better person in the face of all that hurt and pain.

Or, like Phyllis and Aicha in the video above, you can use that power to reach out and touch someone. You can inspire someone to let go of their own hurt and pain. You can inspire someone else to forgive. Even if you don’t understand what they’re going through at all, you can send them a message saying “Forgiveness isn’t weakness. It’s strength. And you have the potential to be strong.”

And that, after much rambling, is my message to you. So go forth and be strong.

Related posts:

1. You are the Bomb You. Yes, you. Reading this right now. Do you know someone awesome? Your mother who can handle a full time...
2. Dare to Fail Think you know the best ways to succeed? I've got a better one: falling flat on your face. Sometimes the...
3. Set Yourself on Fire Calm down, I don’t actually mean that. I treasure my readers very much, and I’d be rather upset if I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Not today.

To those of you who have enjoyed my blog and wondered about the dearth of content for some time, I must apologize. I could spout the various financial, career, medical, and social reasons for why I’ve been absent, but suffice to say my life, my work, and myself have gone through a major overhaul in this past-half year and some.

I will freely admit that my time management and scheduling skills are far from sturdy. I get highly motivated by planning out my time, and for the first few days I manage to get things done perfectly. Then life steps in, with its blasted interruptions, and my fragile hold on my time shatters. I go through a period of scrambling to put the pieces together, then I abandon those tasks I planned earlier and I create a new set, freshly motivated once more. It’s not a cycle that I am proud of, but it is one that I have come to accept.

This time I’m getting back on the wagon with a slightly different approach. Doubtless I am still going to make those tasks, and naturally the world will toss some inevitable disruptions my way, but instead of fretting about it, I am going to take it one step at a time. And for me, that includes writing a completely unplanned, unresearched, and unpolished post every once in a while. Sitting here right now, it’s a somewhat unnerving feeling, as I’m not exactly sure what to write. But I do know this, and it’s something I want to share with anyone who has felt the depression that falling off the wagon will bring:

There is nothing wrong in failing. There is nothing wrong in hitting rock bottom. There is nothing wrong in falling off the wagon, and having your entire life crumble around you while the world speeds past you. What IS wrong is not trying again. What IS wrong is not getting up after you hit rock bottom. What IS wrong is not picking up the pieces and rebuilding your life.

You only lose when you stop trying to win. And because of this, I know that even though I haven’t won yet, I will never lose. And I hope that I’ve inspired you to never lose, either.

Here’s to another round on the wagon. Cheers.

Related posts:

1. Thoughts on Finding Your Optimum Schedule As I'm typing this, I'm behind in my tasks for 3 days. I've not slept in 24 hours, and sounds...
2. Dare to Fail Think you know the best ways to succeed? I've got a better one: falling flat on your face. Sometimes the...
3. Negativity Do you have that one friend? You know the one I’m talking about. The one that always complains and whines...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

34 Places to Get Design Inspiration – Online and Off

60 More Places to Get Design Inspiration – Online and Off

33 New Places to Get Design Inspiration

List of 180+ Best Design Inspiration Sites (Graphic Designers & Web Designers)

20+ Absolutely The Greatest Sites to Gain Inspiration and Resilience

10 Fresh Galleries for Web Design Inspiration

16 Best Web Design Galleries for Inspiration

10 Unusual Places to Get Design Inspiration

Readers Pick: 16 Sites for Web Design Inspiration

Design RSS Roundup 50+ Feeds

30 Fresh and Promising Design Blogs to Follow

25 Most Useful Blogs for Web Design & Development

And the one source of inspiration that has always topped, and will always top them all:

You.

Related posts:

1. Why Bad Design is Good for You We've all had our Comic Sans moments. The ones where our ideas all look horrible and we're stumped. But are...
2. Logo Inspiration #1 – Fun First in a series of logo inspiration posts. Today's keyword is 'fun', so enjoy!...
3. Hello, World! My first post! I thought it'd only be right to introduce myself to you first....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You. Yes, you. Reading this right now. Do you know someone awesome? Your mother who can handle a full time job and still make time to bake heavenly pies for the church sale? your colleague who seems to be able to juggle every task he has, remembers every detail about a project even from months ago, and still has the leisure to flirt on Facebook? well i want you to know this: I know someone awesome too.

You.

I don’t know what you look like, what language you speak, or what you work as, but i know that you are awesome. That’s because inside every one of us is the potential to move mountains and build great empires. I think you are capable of great things. You are capable of rebuilding homes for earthquake victims, or for contributing to ending world hunger and conflict. I think you are also capable of small things which are no less great. You are capable of changing someone’s life for the better, you are capable of cheering.someone up after a horrible day at work.

You are also capable of great things in your own life. Within you lies the strength to overcome any addiction. Within you lies the strength to achieve goals beyond your wildest dreams. Within you lies the power to build megastructures, execute the most complex of dances, and perform brain surgery.

That power within you is so intense, so unpredictable, and so powerful, that it is only fitting to call you a walking, talking bomb. In fact, there are only two differences between you and an actual bomb. The first, is that unlike a bomb which consists of purely destructive energy, your energy can be completely constructive and positive. And the second, is that unlike a bomb that only goes off once and then ceases to exist, you can explode and impact the world around you countless times in your life.

You, my friend, are the bomb.

Related posts:

1. Negativity Do you have that one friend? You know the one I’m talking about. The one that always complains and whines...
2. The Powers of Pre-Forgiveness and Post-Forgiveness You know that light, peaceful feeling you get when you forgive someone, and you let past hurts go? Yeah, well,...
3. Thoughts on Getting Back on the Wagon I usually take time to write my posts. Being a timetable obsessed person, I plan when I’m going to write...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Don’t I know you?If this post looks a little familiar, you’re not imagining things. I found it only appropriate to take my introduction post from my About page. :)
If you’re seeing this page, you probably want to know more about me, and as you’ll soon find out, I love talking about myself.

I’m Ash Menon (fully Ashvin Menon) and I’m a graphic and web designer based in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. I graduated from The One Academy in 2008 and I’m now working as a full-time web developer. I also do freelance work in the following categories:

• Graphic design (logos, letterheads, name cards, etc)
• Web design and programming (HTML, CSS, XML, PHP, Flash, plus a few more languages I’m currently learning)
• Copywriting (I also provide translation between English and Malay)

In my spare time I also do some advertising work and illustrations, which you may see from time to time in my portfolio (although I try to limit them to my Deviantart and Artician accounts). I live with my family in PJ, which is just outside the nation’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. Between three people and two cats, it’s a house full of life, love, and inspiration.

My aim with this blog is twofold. First, I want to provide a place that designers and developers can come to for reference, guides, hints, cheatsheets, and anything else that helps them in their work. I believe that if I can share my knowledge and make someone else a better designer/developer, then I’ve done a good day’s work. Also, if that designer/developer takes my codes or guides or reference and creates something even better, and shares it, and I learn from it, then I’ve gotten all the reward I could possibly need.

Secondly, I believe that few people realise how emotional the design process really is. For designers, you can’t separate your work from your heart and soul. They feed each other in a constant cycle. I want to provide ways for designers to boost their productivity, happiness, health, and confidence so we enjoy our work more, and we produce better work.

I’m still new at this blogging thing, so I’m going to be making a lot of mistakes, from which hopefully I’ll learn. I hope you enjoy your time here, dear reader.

Every day is Thanksgiving

I have a million people to credit in the process of getting this blog off the drawing board and actually online, but for sake of brevity I’ll list the top 5. They are, in order of whatever comes to mind first, as follows:

David Airey – An excellent logo designer and blogger, David was actually the catalyst for me to get this blog started, even though he has no idea about it. If you ever want to learn more about the way logos are made, his blog is an awesome place to go to.

Abduzeedo – Fabio Sasso and his teammates at Abduzeedo constantly churn out new posts at an amazing rate. Every day I go to their website, I find something new that inspires me.

Zen Habits – Leo Babauta’s blog on simplicity, happier living, and a generally better lifestyle, was in fact the first blog I started reading. The impact it made on me was mind-blowing. I recommend anyone new to self-improvement to read his blog.

Teh interwebz – The millions of people online that I meet everyday, who come from different walks of life, and who bring different things to the wonderful world of creativity.

And finally,

My friends and family – Countless friends, three family members, and two cats. They provide me with inspiration, motivation, and reminders to actually get out once in a while.

Related posts:

1. 500+ Sources for Design Inspiration, and One That Beats Them All A massive list of inspiration sources for graphic design and web design for anyone who is having a block, or...
2. Thoughts on Finding Your Optimum Schedule As I'm typing this, I'm behind in my tasks for 3 days. I've not slept in 24 hours, and sounds...
3. Dare to Fail Think you know the best ways to succeed? I've got a better one: falling flat on your face. Sometimes the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.