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3 Behaviors I Know Are Mistakes, But Still Make
You want to think that, as you move through life, you improve. That when you learn new things, you take them to heart and change your ways. That you’re better today than you were yesterday.
For the most part, that’s probably true. But there are a host of mistakes that I made in my first marketing job that I’m still making today — regularly.
I’m hoping that, by really thinking about them and writing them down, I’ll become more aware of when I start to make these mistakes and catch myself.
Cross your fingers and let’s get started.
Acting Before You Think
I’m driven to do things.
That, in itself, isn’t such a bad thing, but it often means that I begin projects before I’ve thought my way through the most efficient process.
This leads to wasted time. It means doing things more than once.
Honestly, I rarely notice it myself — it’s natural to me to simply dive in — so I only become aware of it when I see how it frustrates those around me.
And that, of course, is a great reason to work on changing that behavior.
Instead of approaching a task with a mindset of, “What needs to be done?”, think first of, “How can this be done to achieve the best result most efficiently?”
Putting Quantity Over Quality
At the end of the day, I want to look back and say, “Wow, look at everything I accomplished!”
It’s easiest to feel like you really did something when you have something to show for it. Maybe you sent a dozen emails. Maybe you wrote a new draft of a blog post or edited an old one. Maybe you optimized a web page for SEO.
Whatever those accomplishments are, you want to be able to see them.
The thing is, the things that you can see aren’t always the most important.
Responding to emails feels productive, but most of those emails could probably go unseen for days and the company itself would churn along just fine.
Writing a new blog post certainly provides evidence that you did something with your day, but that only matters if…
