I'm a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, and I've been designing for 7 or 8 years now. At the end of one of my classes my professor told me in critique that I was operating at a really high level (of craftsmanship and knowledge of all designer software) when I entered & that she judged my progress by the evolution of my ideas. She'd taken notice that with each project I'd try to do something out of my comfort zone just to expand an idea. Since then I've made a conscious effort to continually do so. That's my input for now... just evolve your ideas & step out of your comfort zone, so that eventually you're comfortable no matter where you go & what you're doing.
