The Board Game Design Course

“I’m no good at this,” you say. “There are so many other designers who are better than me. What right do I have trying to compete with them?”

We’ve all been there before. Myself included.

We are constantly questioning our own ability, especially when it comes to a creative pursuit. There will always be people who are better than you (although “better” is very subjective), but we also have to keep in mind that some people have just put in a lot more time and are therefore more experienced. They may make it look easy, but they can still struggle, just like you and me.

You’re not alone

These more experienced creators went through all the same challenges and self-doubts that you are feeling, and many continue to struggle with them throughout their career. Over time though, the successful ones have put processes in place to make things a little bit easier on themselves.

They developed good habits. They continue to think up new ideas, work hard, and produce consistently. This consistency and hard work ethic are at the heart of the most successful people.

It could be the habit of starting work at the exact same time each day. They could be holding themselves accountable to work on their game designs each and every day.

Distractions

It’s easy to get distracted by social media, constant notifications, and everything happening around you. It’s the people that can step away from these distractions, focus on the task at hand, and deliver consistently who will get ahead. This is especially true in a creative field like boardgame design, where you constantly have to be coming up with new ideas, identifying problems, testing solutions, and repeating this over and over.

It’s very common to feel like you’re not as good as others or to question your own abilities. It doesn’t just happen in game design, but in all sorts of creative endeavors, as well as in the business world. Maybe you advance to a position or get hired on to do something you’re not sure you’re fully capable of managing. This is perfectly normal.

This is what is commonly referred to as “imposter syndrome”. You feel like you just don’t measure up, and maybe even that you’re a fraud.

Always be learning

There’s always a learning curve. There are always things you can do better. But this is all the process of improving yourself and becoming more confident in what you do.

Don’t let this hold you back. There will always be times that you second-guess yourself. You will always question whether you can do something better.

Don’t aim for perfection. Aim for constant improvement. Know that the devil on your shoulder will always try to keep you down. Keep working away at it anyway. If you give up now, you never know what you might have accomplished.

Even so-called experts may sometimes think of themselves as a fraud or imposter. Just knowing this should help give you the extra encouragement to push through.

What have your experiences been with imposter syndrome? What do you do to overcome this?