Make it work for you

Are you a good nail technician? 

It is easy to be a good nail technician, you need to know your stuff, be educated in your craft and continue with that education with skill building workshops throughout your career.  

But to be a great nail technician……That is a different question. 

Not to let fear hold you back, to relax when you apply your acrylic or gel and just ‘know’ it will be ok.  I wrote these top tips quite a while ago, I found them again whilst looking for something else and they resonated with me...reminded me actually of how it should be.

This is a top 10 list  about working smarter and learning some tricks to make your craft work for you. This little list is not about all the technical stuff, it isn’t a “do this, and you will achieve that…list”, instead it is guide, my little “notes to self” that achieves some fantastical results. 

1. Don’t think it…. just do it, enjoy the process, and live in that moment, because believe me this will show in your work. 
2. Do you over analyse your nail?  Sometimes we get stuck over thinking our designs, and before we know it we have given up before we have started, because we feel it might be too difficult, or might not be good enough.  It doesn’t matter it will be what it will be when you’re done. 
3. Don’t try and manipulate any creative process. There is no right and wrong, you can’t make any mistakes, and you’re not going to win any prizes…..so just enjoy it…find that inner child who doesn’t care what others want least of all you…and have fun!
4. We are as human’s extremely over critical, mainly of ourselves. We end up having long drawn out conversations with our selves, mostly negative.  Turn around and tell that part of you to “SHUT UP”, pop those ear plugs in……you might like this new you!
5. Don’t rush anything, don’t try and finish the nail before you have even started it.  This is my problem; I get so excited I want to see the finished product. 
6. Because you may miss opportunities to improve it along the way.   
7. The secret is to just go with the flow, and see what happens.  Sometimes the best results are born from a mistake.  
8. Have faith in your product; know what it can do for you.  Learn how your acrylic ticks and make it work for you; build a relationship out of mutual respect. 
9. Don’t….don’t copy.  Don’t take an idea from someone else and recreate it, but do….DO use someone’s work to inspire your own design. If you are unique and original you will have a style, this is what will define your work, not designs….but you will never develop a style if you copy someone else’s, and let that influence you…instead, use their designs as your muse, to wet your creative appetite to develop something fantastic.   
10. The final thing, and most important in my option is not to compare your skills and talents with others around you. As technicians we find this habit very hard to break, looking at what other people are doing and judging their talents against our own.  We just have to face it there is always going to be someone else more talented than you, it might be that they seem to be more creative than you feel, or display a unique talent that you covet. But equally there will always be those who are less than you in all these ways.  The way to find out who you are is not by comparing yourself with others, but by looking at fulfilling your own potential the best way you know how. Now ask yourself “Are you incomparably unique?”

Let me know if you have found this blog post useful and helpful, and please feel free to share it with others.  Samxxx