For some reason it is a mental battle for me to make posts on my blog. It is strange because I have a strong desire to put more time and effort into my blog, it just seems like I will occupy my time with just about anything OTHER than posting on my blog.

So it is with that in mind that I write this post…

Over the past few months I have been kept pretty busy on a day-to-day basis at my job. Bouncing from one project to the next and often performing the juggling act with multiple projects that have the same deadline has been the norm for me of late.

We are all familiar with this, sometimes we are super busy and sometimes we are not. I think it is very important that in these busy times, we make that extra effort to keep improving our personal skills.

It is easy to experiment with photoshop, try that new css technique or play around with a new flash application when your workload is at a low-point. It is a bit more challenging however, to do these things while your schedule is filled to the brim!

Ever since I was a little kid, my favorite cartoon was GI Joe and on that show, my favorite character (by far) was Snake Eyes. The ultimate Ninja! Unable to speak due to an injury, he was a mute terror on the forces of Cobra!

Snake Eyes was the martial arts master of team GI Joe. Whenever there was a task that was deemed impossible to achieve, oftentimes it was Snake Eyes who was sent in to accomplish the impossible. When he wasn’t off saving the world, he was usually training and training and… yep, you guessed it… TRAINING!

You see there was a reason why Snake Eyes was always chosen for the most difficult tasks, it was because he had dedicated his life to becoming the best, and he was!

This is the type of lifestyle that I pursue… total immersion. Seeing as I am a Web Designer, I strive for improvement in every area that I can. Not just becoming a better graphic artist (believe me, I have much room for improvement in that area!), but becoming a better front-end developer, more knowledgeable about usability, more skill in Flash/AS3… the list goes on in on.

In my own personal life, I believe that if my skills are not increasing, then they are decreasing.

One of the reasons why Snake Eyes was always striving to get better and better because he had an Arch-Nemesis lurking in the shadows… Storm Shadow. His enemy was on an almost equal footing as far as skill is concerned.

He had to get better, or else he would be defeated.

Now, I am aware that as a Web Designer I don’t have a white-clad ninja seeking to end my existence (at least I hope I don’t), but still we must all have something that is a driving force for us to improve ourselves. Whether it is another designer in the workplace that is just that little bit better or it may even be one of the Web Rockstars out there that every time you see their work you are almost angry at how good their work is! Use that. Turn that into your own nemesis, your Storm Shadow.

Yo Joe!