Originally on Medium

As I am writing this I can still feel it, that sensation which tells you that what you’re doing is not enough. I want to make it stop, and of course I’d love to be able to forget all about it and be pleased with what I have achieved over the last couple of years, but it is not as easy as it may seem to third parties.

It was this morning when I saw a tweet sponsoring someone I know, someone who is way smarter than me, way more experienced than I could ever be, doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I saw that and suddenly this blue feeling started to kick in. I know I can do that too, and while this person is great at what he does so am I, even if I don’t have the same experience as he does. So why can’t I be doing the same? Why am I feeling like I’m not good enough? I’m working full-time at an amazing agency with amazing co-workers, I’m running a font pairing challenge on Dribbble to level up my design skills, I’m working on a weekly podcast/screencast series that focuses on front-end development and UI/UX design, I’m running a weekly newsletter for said series. I know I could go on a bit more, but I should be happy with just that already, so why can’t I make it stop?

I realized this feeling started to happen more and more often than I’d like to admit, and right now my way out of it is to put it like this: I’m surrounding myself with crazy talented folks. This is good for me too, it lights a fire under my ass and reminds me that I should stop being so lazy and should start doing shit. Also, no matter what you are doing, or how many things you’re doing for that matter, if you’re doing something, then you’re good enough.

Let’s stop comparing ourselves with our peers and colleagues. We’re so different that there’s no possible way to fairly measure our achievements with the ones of our friends or work buddies. We’re good enough. Are you taking 5 minutes a day to learn how to code? Are you trying to finish a book you gave up? Are you trying to work out at least once a week? Then you are good enough. It is the smallest things that amount to something.

I actually talked a bit about this in Episode #04 of Show and Learn. If you’re into front-end development or tooling, there’s a segment where we analyze Ponyfoo’s article “Gulp, Grunt, whatever” which talks about how we should choose the tools that suit our needs, and not the ones trending in the industry.

If you’re stepping out of your comfort zone then you’re good enough, and you’re successful, in your own terms, but you still are successful.