We recently connected with Dominic Lawson and have shared our conversation below.
Dominic , so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
The first way I avoid burnout is by pacing myself. I can generally feel when I’m starting to feel burnt out and I know that if I push past and keep working while I’m burnt out I notice a decrease in the quality of my work. Mainly because at that point whatever I’m working on I’m just trying to finish it and I lose enthusiasm. So I tend to take a step back. It’s watching and anticipating those moments to avoid full burn out. But I make sure to balance the amount of time away from what I’m burnt out from so I’m not gone too long. Secondly, I might put one thing down and pick another up in the meantime. I like to stay productive, so when I do reach a moment of being burnt out I’ll drop one thing temporarily and work on something else. For example I could be working on a garment for a client but reach a point of being burnt out so maybe in the meantime I go over and start editing some of my videos. It works because I don’t feel as bad for not working. Which is something I tend to beat my self up on.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My story is a interesting one because I made a last minute 180 decision on how my life was gonna go and my life has been different ever since. I grew up in a military family, my dad aunts, uncles and brother were all in the military. So I kinda “knew” that would be the path I’d go in. I actually really love planes and wanted to join the Air Force and my family said it was a great idea. I watched so military videos on YouTube and even join JROTC. I was in Love and so the plan was to go to school for psychology and have the military pay for it. But one day with a flip of a switch I realized thats not what I wanted to do and wasn’t for me. I’m a creative person and I wanted to pursue that avenue. To avoid making the story longer, long story short fashion had appeared to me at the time I was figuring myself out and gave me an avenue I came to love. My end goal is to be a designer and eventually have my own brand. But I would love to help others on theirs in the meantime. Although as I stated before I’m a creative person, so I have so many other avenues I wanna go into. I recently started a podcast called composition conversation. And at the time of writing this we just put out a new episode! Lastly I’m trying to start an art collective that brings together local creatives to create a community and work on projects together so that we can boost our selves up.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The best quality someone should have is being motivated. You can be the most ambitious person in the world but with no motivation to go after what you want it can end up wasted. I say this as someone who struggles with staying motivated. I’m very ambitious but I catch myself loosing opportunity because of my motivation. Secondly, consistency this paired with motivation allow you to build on your skill and get better. It allows for growth. lastly, the skill of creating connections. Less of who you know to get you where you wanna go and more of who can you learn from, who can you inspire and who can you collaborate with. I think the people around us are great for motivation and inspiration and not just as a step up on the ladder.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I’m always looking for people to collaborate with! Part of the podcast I have and my collective I’m starting is all about coming together and creating a community. I think it’s so important for creating a better world. I want people who are passionate about what they do and are very genuine about the things they do. Anyone can reach out to me on my insta at dom_359
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Dom_359
- Linkedin: Dominic Lawson
- Youtube: Composition conversation
Image Credits
Photos are taken by
Pritvi Kohli
Alecks Atinda
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
