My 4 biggest mistakes of 2016
Hey, you: what a year!
Maybe you don’t think so. Maybe you would skip 2016 if you could, right? Not me. After thinking a little bit, I’ve found the past year very positive in general. For me, it was a year of professional consolidation and self awareness. And even you will find something truly positive about it, I’m sure about that.
That doesn’t mean everything was a fairy tale, which we all know that are, usually, full of shit. Far from that, 2016 was also a year of flaws. Errors that I’ve identified after seeing my year in retrospect. Below the image, the four biggest mistakes I’ve made in the past year. That’s right. I’m willing to share this kind of personal information. I need it. Maybe you need it too.
4. Criminal reading levels
Fine, I confess: for me, 2016 was a miserable year for literacy and books were almost nonexistent in my life’s core. Looking into the past, I find only three or four books I’ve read during these 366 days’ time frame. Worse: only one had a significant impact on me, which was, of course, about journalism (what else could it be?). To be fair, I read a lot of articles and other interesting content online. But it’s not the same. So, in terms of errors, facing them — and admitting them — is a good principle to begin fixing those flaws. Guess what: it’s what I’m trying to do here. We’ll see how do I behave during 2017.
3. Little time creating content
Following the previous point, ironically I’ve spent more time consuming content than writing and creating it. Even despite the fact that I have a bunch of articles published on my own, I’m a journalist (which litteraly means that I write for food) and 2016 was my third year leading Tomar TV’s team, whose members were hired to produce shows for two portuguese major generalist TV channels, RTP and TVI (for disclosure, I haven’t been directly involved with those jobs and my merit is null). In 2017, I shoud apply more time on creation than consumption.
2. Too much procrastination
Something you don’t know about me: I procrastinate. Sure, everyone does, so do I. There’s no problem on that. It’s normal. Nevertheless, there are healthy levels of procrastination, and mine are becoming a little bit above that. That’s not normal. That’s toxic. And it is something I should worry about. In 2017, I need to act more and think less (common sense applies on this point). I will stop wasting that amount of time in things that do not matter, to apply more time on things that truly matter. Yes, it’s that simple.
1. Poor life/work balance
Oh, the cliché. I’m pretty sure this was my biggest mistake, not just in 2016 but for the past five years at least. I tend to devote a lot of my time to my professional life, which most of the times result in negleting my friends, family and, for instance, my own well-being. Don’t take me wrong. I still think there is time for everything: time to self improvement, to work hard on projects, to joy, to cry and even to hang out in the end of the day. However, in 2017, I really think that I need to create a better life/work balance. It will be good for me, for my relatives and, at last, should improve my job performance, since most of my errors of 2016, those that I’m not mentioning here, are related to this topic.
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