As we touched on last week, failure will come for every project eventually. Be it a missed deadline, a physical set back or just plain exhaustion, failure is not something to be ashamed of. This is part of every journey. This week I’d like to talk about what options we have available when something does go wrong. What can we do to right the ship?
For many the first step should be to stop. Just for a moment take a breath and don’t panic. For some it just takes a single mistake for them to throw in the towel. The goals we set are often hard and challenging, it’s how we grow as people. What we want though, is for things to be easy. We want to excel at our tasks, to be good at something and a mistake, well it just feels bad. It sucks. That’s ok. If something goes sideways there is no reason to panic, this is normal. Your dreams are not wrecked, you can recover from this. All set backs are temporary.
Since you have paused for a moment this would be a great time to think about why this goal isn’t getting met. There could be a larger issue at play that can’t be easily fixed. Consider whether or not this mistake is something that can be fixed or if you need to go back to the drawing board and start over. I say this because if your goal is missing something important then there is no amount of effort that is going to turn things around. I have been there, trying my hardest to scrabble over a wall when I should have just used the door. Throwing ourselves at a problem without considering alternative is a sure path towards being overstressed and burnt out before the year is done. Figure out what went wrong and then assess whether it can be fixed.
Some mistakes are easy to recover from, if you missed a word target then you add it to the next. If you miss a weight goal you add more exercise or tweak your diet a bit. What of bigger misses? A lot of the goals we have cannot be overcome with more effort. I have missed my editing goals for February, why? Because the task was much larger than expected. SO what do I do? A whole month down means I can’t muscle through it a different kind of change is needed. I will need to move the goal posts, though I know many like myself are loathe to do such things, it is important to remember that these goals you set up are just targets. You don’t need to hit every single one perfectly. I will be looking at my progress and going back to the drawing board. I will reconfigure my timeline not just for the editing but also for the new draft I was hoping to have done before summer. In my experience this is pretty common keeping track of our goals means that we will know when we need to double down and work harder and when we need to adjust things. Missing larger goals does not mean you should give up, it merely means that you were too eager in setting those goals.
All mistakes are just temporary setbacks. A chance to pause and assess and readjust our workflows and goals. We do not need to worry or think that the entire task is hopeless because we are not hitting our goals cleanly. What matters more than any goal or achievement is that you are making some forward momentum. Are you being diligent? Are you working towards your dreams? These are more important than the raw numbers. Keep your eyes towards the future and keep working towards your dreams