Common Mistakes When Creating Authenticity
Meg Lewis
Lesson Info
3. Common Mistakes When Creating Authenticity
Lessons
Class Introduction
06:03 2What is an Authentic Design Career & Life?
12:16 3Common Mistakes When Creating Authenticity
04:43 4Discovering Your Unique Differences
07:57 5Defining Your Strengths
04:38 6Creating a Life's Purpose to Drive Your Career & Life
16:16 7A New Way to Approach Your Life
17:58 8Crafting Your New Career Mission
19:43Lesson Info
Common Mistakes When Creating Authenticity
Let's talk about some common mistakes that people make when creating authenticity. So as I mentioned, being authentic is so hot right now. (laughing) Every brand, every person online is trying to look like they're authentic and a real person. And it's really cool to do that right now, which is a good thing. But I'm seeing a lot of mistakes in the world, a lot of mistakes that we're all making, that I make all the time, still, even though I'm trying not to. So let's go over some of these mistakes so that we know what not to do before we get into all of this, okay. So we are all guilty of only sharing the best parts of our lives, okay. Not every human is happy, is perfect, all of the time. We all have a lot of highs and lows. Some people have really deep lows and really high highs. Other people kinda travel up here. Other people travel down there. We all have our own spectrum of what highs and lows mean for us. And we wanna show that online, because we're encouraging other people to also...
be themselves online and offline. So we wanna be honest with people. Like if somebody says "How are you doing today?" You can tell them if you're not doing okay, and people need to be okay with that. I think too often we have interactions with people in person where we say "Hey, how ya doin'?!" and then your immediate response is "Great. "Oh no, my dog just died this morning, "of course I'm not great." And then you think in your head wow, why did I just say that? (laughing) Let's stop doing that! Let's start being really honest with people and stop only sharing good things when it's fake and not real. Alright. So we wanna give the whole, the real, the wholly, really honest picture. Okay, we're all guilty of trying to please a certain type of person. So, this happens in real life, if you are in high school and you're trying to attract a certain group of friends, or you're trying to get into a different club, or you're trying to get in with a different type of crowd. We're always doing this. We're always trying to appeal to a certain audience or a certain type of person. And that's really unhealthy for us as people, because it makes us start to act like someone who we're not. And this happens online, too, where you see a certain aesthetic that you really like online. And so you all of a sudden find yourself just trying to recreate something that someone else has because you like it rather than actually trying to please yourself, and trying to be yourself, and trying to think of yourself first and what your self needs to be fully fulfilled and happy before interacting with others, and before going out and trying to please other people. Ooh, this one is tough! This one has been really hard for me especially. Curating and styling our lives is something that we're all very guilty of, is only posting and showing beautiful arrangements or beautiful things that look perfect. This one has been especially hard for me as a designer, and for a lot of designers, because your instinct is to make things look beautiful before you show them to people or to always have your home looking gorgeous and perfect. And for me, I think it's really dangerous, because we should be posting content and doing things in our real lives that reflect the whole picture, that reflect the real picture, because that's who you actually are. It's another way of trying to conform to a vision of yourself that isn't real. Ooh, this one especially I love, because I've witnessed this a lot. For example, with myself and friends, but creating content nowadays has such a higher precedence over having a real life experience. (laughing) I think an example is one time a few years ago I was staying at this hotel. I was at a conference. And all of a sudden, everyone at this conference looked outside, and there was a beautiful sunset. And I saw all of these people get up out of their chairs and rush with their phones to the sunset, and they all took a photo of the sunset and then came back to their seats. And that was sort of my epiphany moment where I thought oh my gosh, none of these people actually looked at the sunset and enjoyed it, they all just took a picture of it and then stopped looking at it. And I have noticed since then that I do the same thing. I'll see something I like and I'll just immediately grab my phone and take a picture of it, post it, or not even look at it again. So now what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to see the sunset, take a deep breath, enjoy the sunset, have a moment with myself enjoying the thing. (laughing) And then after I'm done enjoying it, I'll take a photo of it.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Juliette
I just absolutely love Meg's style. Cheerful, fun, unapologetical... And her insights really helped me have a clearer vision of where i want to go, how i want to travel on life's path (so poetic haha) and be PROUD of who i am and most of all, what i do. Even though i'm not your average creative girl. LOVE THAT. Merci beaucoup, thanks a LOT Meg. And YES, do yourself a favour, buy this class !
LA McCabe
i love this class. I was inspired, encouraged and applies the information to my life. learning what makes your unique and special should be law. This was a refreshing and fun loving course. watch this and enjoy
Annie Wong
Meg's class was really pivotal for me at this particular stage in my career. Traditionally I have been taught to be a jack-of-all trades in order to be employable. While this does work for a lot of people, this put a lot of the power balance into luck and timing (is there a slot open for you in a competitive market, or a company?) because it's hard to stand out from the crowd if you are just a set of hands. Meg's class encouraged me to dig deep and figure out how I could be more than a set of hands and how my unique personality traits can actually be used as part of my personal brand. This is so refreshing since I have always been worried about how I can fit into a company, but instead, I can think about how to broadcast my particular style and brand so that the clients that are looking for ME, can find me! This is a great class for people that want to live in a more holistic way where you can blend your work with your personal interests and beliefs.
Student Work
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