Professional Skills
During the years, I also developed my professional skills a lot. I have always had a problem with presenting. My worst memory of presenting is completely forgetting what I worked on for several months in high school. However, we are constantly pitching and presenting ideas and concepts at Industrial Design. They always says that practicing helps, but it is really true. The more I had to present, the more I got confident. I still am nervous, but nowadays these are healthy nerves.
Combining professional sports and my study the past years has forced me to improve my planning and organizational skills. However, those were always my points for improvement when reflecting. This is why I set the goal to talk my FBP through with someone at least once a week for the whole project. This in combination with keeping a physical and digital agenda were my strategies to improve my planning skills.
During the years, I also realized that when it came down to projects in groups I was communicating as soon as possible to group mates I would be away for races and training camp. In those projects I had to ask for help with things, as I didn't want to let my teammates down. However, when it came down to doing a project on my own, I was afraid to ask for help, because I thought I would look stupid.
In the beginning of the project, I didn't keep up with my goal to talk about my project with at least one person every week. I also started struggling in my time management and ran behind schedule. I realized here that I reached out again late, but when I did I could get back on track with the help of others. I learned from this that you can always ask for help with your struggles and everyone struggles with things. It is however about the way you handle your problems, what your outcome will be.