Hey, it’s Sveta here
A few years ago I happily transitioned from Product Management to UX/UI design and writing, and found myself as an everyday aesthetics lifestyle ambassador in the meantime. Being in my mid-30ies, I can surely tell that I’ve found my mission. It may sound too daring, but to me it feels quite natural now that everything has fallen into place.
And I have a strong need to share my experience and life path: not only because I believe it might help someone out there to find their own mission, but also for the sake of storytelling. People love hearing stories, right?
A Brief Childhood Retrospective
Now that I’m sitting here at my desk with my laptop, I look into the window where there are lots of green trees and grass. And I remember my childhood. That’s where it all started. My parents have signed me up for quite a variety of activities since I was three years old. I visited English classes where we learned English language in the form of a game. I still remember a bookmark with a black and white image of a dwarf on it. We had to color it with pencils and thus learn new words. I’ve also visited drawing classes, dance and gymnastics classes, and some courses for kids that develop logical thinking.
Or, and I also enjoyed storytelling. My friend and I wrote our own fairytales and then performed them to our parents. It was something like a home theater. I also enjoyed storytelling all alone; I used to describe a book I read or the items I have in my wardrobe to.. no one. I imagined that there’s some audience listening (pre-Youtube times, ha?) and just talked to myself, basically.
Ok. To sum it up, I enjoyed the world around me, discovering its beauty through art, nature and language every single day.
Those Teenage Days
At school, I majored in English and German as a second foreign language, continued to draw and visit my dance classes. I dreamt of becoming a translator. To translate fiction from Russian into English and vice versa.
And I also found myself interested in interior design. Well, to be more precise, I enjoyed creating beautiful spaces in our apartment: moving furniture, decorating and updating the interior element and what not. Another hobby was fashion, Gothic fashion. I enjoyed wearing fancy dresses and platform boots, experimenting with my hairstyles and color. Those teenage days, yep..
On the other hand, playing computer games and discovering the Internet had become my passion. That dial-up sound, remember? I enjoyed finding information online, Googling things and even tried myself as a CSS / HTML developer, well, self-taught of course.
So, I continued to discover the beauty of the world through art, nature, language and a new means of cognition, that is technology.
University Times
Then it was time to choose what university degree I wish to get. I knew by then that I’d choose to major in English. Dreams of becoming a translator were still my priority. I also wanted to travel and discover other countries and cultures. While studying, I had some side hustles, like making translation tasks for other students, tutoring schoolchildren, and working as a part-time sales assistant in a video rental shop where one could rent or buy a film, a video game or music CDs.
Stepping into the ‘Real Life’
When it was my last year at the University, I got my first real job in an IT company. I started as a classification and categorization manager, meaning I had to sort and categorize digital assets for a large IT platform. Since it was an international company, I used my English a lot; also my computer skills came in handy. But of course, this job was only a starting point. I mean, it was quite monotonous and limiting in terms of promotion and gaining new skills. Yet it was a great start, I believe.
So, a few years later I found myself working in a marketing / IT company. And it was much more interesting to work there. I started as a junior product manager and had to wear many hats from the very beginning: I helped with research, translations, email communications and everything in between. In time, I got promoted to a product owner role. Well, I got so much experience there. And I still think that I could work there forever. Except for that, the company got bankrupt due to the fraudulent activity of some of the accountants (as far as I know). And I had to move on.
Luckily, my next two jobs were as a product owner in larger companies. I still had plenty of time to improve my English and professional skills.
As for my hobbies, I still enjoyed improving interiors, experimenting with fashion, and painting. What added to the list was reading psychological and spiritual books as well as books on nutrition and health.
A Few Years Before
Being in my late twenties, I felt that thoughts of improving my life haunted me. I had that inner calling to outline my mission, my values and my path more clearly. I wanted to look at my life from a distance and point out the main course.
A few things happened then. The first one was a book I came across; titled ‘How to find your purpose in life’, it was written by a well-known Russian motivational speaker and relationship lecturer, Satya. Well, lots of people tend to be skeptical when it comes to such authors. But I decided to read the book anyway. You never know where you will find useful information, right?
So, in the book he gave many tools on how to find your way. And I paid attention to the two of them. First, he suggested remembering what you liked to do as a child: what used to bring you joy and happiness. Well, I should say there’s some sense in it. Yet, what impressed me more (and helped me to find my path) was another tool. So, the author suggested thinking of things and situations that drive you mad when done wrong. Bingo! It helped me a lot. I know that I get frustrated when I see poorly executed interior design. The same goes for beauty, fashion and even food serving. Moreover, I get really upset when I see not at all user-friendly sites or apps, or awkward offline billboards and ads.
So what is it, after all? Aesthetics! This word came to me instantly along with the word ‘harmony’. This is it! I love to find harmony and aesthetics in everything I come across in life. What’s more, I feel satisfaction when creating such aesthetics and harmony myself. Sounds like a plan, right?
There was another book I came across. It’s titled ‘The power of character strengths’ by Robert E. McGrath and Ryan M. Niemiec. I’m not going to describe in detail what this book is about, but I’ll say that it can help you define your path. There’s a test you can take and find out your character strengths. The authors suggest developing those strengths to find more meaning and happiness in life. So, my test results were surprising. In a way that they showed exactly what I felt and how I perceived myself and the world around me. So, my strengths appeared as follows:
- Love of learning
- Appreciation of beauty and excellence
- Spirituality
- Honesty
- Humor
With that information in mind, I felt like I finally knew what was right for me. So, I split my mission into 2 parts: the personal one (that is, promoting everyday aesthetics lifestyle to everyone who’s interested in improving their routine experiences) and the professional one (that is, transitioning from product management to UX/UI design and writing in order to make a difference through improving one’s digital experiences).
The Present Moment and Final Thoughts
Today I feel confident and calm when it comes to evaluating my life mission (that is, what I give to the world) and my goals (that is, what I would like to achieve). As someone said, ‘Happiness is a journey, not a destination’. Well, my journey is in progress. And I can’t even describe how happy and excited I am to walk through it.