Research shows people in their fifties and sixties are significantly more likely to start something new than those in their twenties. I’m turning 43, and I’m not waiting until fifty.
And I’m not alone in this. I see more women are done pretending nothing is changing. We’re navigating this season intentionally. The urgency that used to run everything has started to loosen. We are still ambitious, but we are saying no to the performance and the hustle culture. We are focusing on gaining clarity on what we want for our second act.
This is why I’m giving myself a year. A year to learn, to experiment, to build something slowly and badly and then better. A year to do the work I’ve been avoiding. A year where the creative work comes first.
I have been a designer for over twenty years. I have learned how to build things that didn’t exist before: from graphic to digital. How to look at a blank page and make something specific and true from scratch.
What I’m discovering is that some of those design rules apply here, too. As I think about my second act, these are the four I’m bringing with me.
Rule 1: Start ugly
Every design project I’ve worked on started ugly: rough sketches, wireframes, loose lines. The first version is never meant to be the final one, but it’s meant to get you closer to it.
I used to think I needed a complete, polished portfolio to call myself an illustrator. That my first manuscript draft had to be perfect before showing anyone. The designer in me should have known better. The work teaches you. You just have to be willing to put those beginner shoes on and stay open to what comes back.
You are also allowed to begin before you have everything figured out. You are allowed to fill a sketchbook nobody looks at. You are allowed to start a Substack with the intention of sharing and then change your mind about the whole thing. I know that’s not what the Substack gurus will tell you, but honestly, this is your party. Do what fits you, not the algorithms. You are allowed to claim an identity before the credentials catch up because the credentials come from practice, and practice has to start somewhere.
Your first step doesn’t have to be your most visible one. The most important ones usually happen in private, long before anyone else is paying attention.
Rule 2: Don’t fear the empty spaces.
One of the first things design teaches you: the space between elements is not wasted. It’s where the composition breathes. White space prevents clutter and directs the eye naturally through what matters. Remove it, and everything collapses into noise.
The same is true for a creative life. The morning you spend just thinking. The sketchbook session where nothing comes together. The walk you take when you’re stuck. These are not detours from the work. They are part of the work. White space is where ideas arrive. You have to build it in and protect it.
Rest is part of the structure. I say this with love, from a former girlboss and all-time hustler: This is going to take longer than you think. Take the breaks. The days when you can’t tell if anything is growing. That’s not stalling. That’s what the beginning of a creative practice actually looks like. Protect those days. They’re doing more than they look like.
Rule 3: Everything you’ve experienced is the brief.
In design, the brief is the foundation. All the research, the conversations, the constraints, the problem you’re actually trying to solve. That accumulated understanding is what makes the final work specific and true instead of generic.
Your life is the brief.
One of the stories I’m writing couldn’t have been written by someone who hadn’t lived my particular life. It required specific years, specific losses, specific crossings. And that life took time.
Whatever you are about to make, it has been accumulating in you. The years spent on someone else’s vision. The seasons of becoming who you had to become first. In my case, it was the mothering, the moving, the grief. These were not the opposite of the creative work. They were the creative work, arriving slowly.
The delay wasn’t lost time. It was the material.
Rule 4: Iteration is the work.
In design, we go wide before we narrow. Divergent thinking first: sketching possibilities, exploring options. Then you commit to a direction and refine it through rounds of feedback and revision. The version that ships is rarely the version you started with. Nobody calls the first draft a failure. It’s just the beginning of the process.
Here is what I wish someone had said to me earlier: You don’t need to have it all figured out to begin. You need enough to take the first step, and the first step will show you what the second one needs to be. You already know more than you think. Not enough to finish, but more than enough to start. That’s where the learning begins.
Takeaway
Want to start illustrating? Begin with what you already know about composition, color, and how the eye moves through a page.
Want to write? Begin with what you already know about explaining complex ideas simply. About finding the image that makes something click for someone who doesn’t speak the language yet.
Want to build a creative practice from scratch? Begin with every project you’ve shipped, every brief you survived, every season you came back from.
You already have what you need. Not to finish. But to begin.
What’s the one thing you’ve been putting off until you feel ready? And what do you already know that makes you more prepared than you think?
I’m very much in the messy beginnings of building my author-illustrator career. Still learning to draw hands. Still taping notes above my desk about story structure. Most days, I’m not sure what I’m doing. But I’m less afraid of the pages than I was in January, and that didn’t happen by waiting. It happened by taking action.
Buenas vibras para todas mis almas creativas. You got this. ✨
Adriana
Dear Fellow Wanderer is a newsletter for women in midlife who want to make this season the most creative and magical
These rules are realistic, and thank you for validating everyone pivoting.
This article has left me inspired, thank you! Keep creating, keep it going!!! 🌹🌹🌹