Blog - Rizwan Javaid

Blog

Articles to help you power your inner game.

Poem: Projecting My Insecurities

Poem: Projecting My Insecurities

Last night I caught myself projecting. I pushed my insecurities onto someone I love. What unwanted behavior has my ego been protecting? I was angry and irritated, myself I was not proud of. For me, this is an opportunity for awareness and understanding. To explore the behavior patterns I need

Person against the wall with the words Escape the ordinary.

Creatives gonna create!

I started Low Fidelity with the mission to help creatives develop a resilient mindset so they can achieve their creative potential. But who exactly are the creatives? Let's explore! A creative creates. They create because that is what brings them joy. They have an innate longing to express

Embracing change

Embracing change

The only way is through it! Change is constant. It's something we hear and may even repeat to others but internalizing the idea that change is ever present and living by it is the real test and where the magic happens. Each time I come face to face

Bridging the gap between expectation and reality

Bridging the gap between expectation and reality

Are you ready to do the inner work? Lately, I've been thinking about the inner struggle we experience when our expectations don't match our reality. Not facing our reality has damaging effects because it can keep us from our full potential. If we don't

Hello, goodbye!

Hello, goodbye!

Hello, new me Goodbye, to the old me Hello, leaning in Goodbye, stepping back and fading out Hello, being fully in the present moment Goodbye, to the worry of the past and the anxiety of the future Hello, sharing and being open with confidence Goodbye, contracting and hiding from the

A poem just for you

A poem just for you

Life's not a race Don't fall on your face Trying to keep up with someone else's pace Cut through the noise within your mental space Deep inside, you know just what to do Color your life, with your own magnificent hue Go towards where

A smiling woman in green hijab holding a white mug using a laptop

Networking is finally fun! 🙌🏽

Are you up for a challenge? I used to be deathly afraid of networking! Meeting new people was scary. What would I say? What would I do? Would people want to even talk to me? As you can tell my confidence was pretty low which kept me from ever trying

Woman blowing confetti from her hands

Carpe Momentum!

This moment is all that is real How are you planning to show up today, at home, at work, for yourself? As soon as the day starts, we get lost in our default mode network, a state of mind where our minds wander and daydream. We get lost in stories

My Podcast Publishing Process (PPP™️)

My Podcast Publishing Process (PPP™️)

Plus the inner obstacles I face along the way As a creator, I am fully embracing the #buildinpublic credo. During my journey, I will be sharing my ups and downs, my wins and losses, the challenges, and the successes I face along the way as I build the Low Fidelity

A foggy trail with trees in the distance

Running in the fog

> "As I walk out on the path — the path appears." Rumi I love going for a run when it is foggy outside, the denser the fog the better. There is a sense of calm that surrounds me since I’m not being able to see too far

Managing your inner critic: An exercise

Our inner critic knows just the right time to show up and start whispering to us that our ideas aren’t good enough, so why bother creating them and that we definitely shouldn’t be sharing them with the world. The subtle whispers can keep us from getting started and

Becoming Antifragile

The resilient creative resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile creative gets better. I used to be fragile. When I failed at something, I would feel crushed and become disheartened, which meant I would move on to something else only to repeat the cycle over and over again. As

The words progress over perfection above an illustration with blue shapes on a yellow background.

Progress over perfection!

Lately, there has been a familiar voice that has appeared back in my head. As I work to get the Low Fidelity podcast up and running, the voice constantly reminds me that the podcast should be perfect right from the start, or it's not worth putting out there.

The Power of a Pencil

The Power of a Pencil

We have so many of them after all. It’s easy to overlook the power it has in the busyness of our lives. We can buy pencils in bulk and use one after another. What could a single pencil teach us? The Pencil is a charming story and a lesson

A full white coffee mug with the word Begin printed on it.

Be fully committed to your next task

What if you spent the next few minutes fully engaged in the task you need to complete? Yes, even the one that you are not excited about. I recently learned about this way of approaching tasks from the Waking Up [https://wakingup.com/] app in which Sam Harris shares ways

Keep it real! A guide to representing users in your designs

Are you up for a design test? It’s a quick one. Great! I will show you two concepts for a profile page. I want you to look at them quickly and remember your first impressions for both of them. To make the test work, you will need to scroll

Kindness At Work. Are You Up For The Challenge?

It’s Monday morning. Your day started by scanning the news on your phone. Racism, bigotry, and sexual harassment seem to be dominating the headlines these days. Why can’t people be kind? You think to yourself. On your commute to work, you notice people being inconsiderate, rude, and aggressive

Shaming users is a horrible idea!

How in the world has shaming users become a marketing trend? Who thinks you can get a positive behavior by insulting users? A recent article [https://www.nngroup.com/articles/shaming-users/] by Katie Meyer and Kim Flaherty on the NNGroup.com [https://www.nngroup.com/] blog brought light to this

Laseau's Funnel

Diagram showing Laseau's FunnelFrom the starting point, we generate multiple ideas to see opportunities. The design process then continues by reducing the viable options through decision-making. This process helps identify new and viable opportunities to pursue.

Multicultural Names For InVision's Craft Plugin (Sketch & Photoshop)

[https://github.com/rizwanjavaid/invision-craft-multicultural-names]Are you tired of using Anglo/Latino names in your designs as placeholders? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but there are people with names that are more than one syllable. Products are designed for a global audience so designers should start using names

Your Mood Should Not Dictate Your Manners

When things are going great we all have a positive attitude. We are polite and nice to everyone around us. We are helpful and cheerful and smile back when people smile at us. The story is not the same when things start going south. Whether it is in a project,