I am remodeling my master bathroom. I need to remove the carpeting and wall paper that my daughter refers to as “fugly”. I am not sure exactly what that means but I am pretty sure it is bad. The wallpaper came down easily. I lovingly washed the walls to remove the sizing then sanded for an entire day to make the walls almost perfectly smooth then washed the walls again to remove the dust. I was ready to paint. I have the perfect paint color, a little lighter than the bedroom, a really sweet pale yellow, almost white. It will be great!!
I painted the ceiling yesterday. It didn’t take very long so I thought why not paint the walls? The walls are a bigger job and I had plenty of time left on that Sunday. I put up the tape, cut in the corners, and finished the walls at about 6pm. Perfect timing to watch the evening football game. Then it occurred to me I should remove the tape on the ceiling. The first piece of tape pulled off a big chunk of the new ceiling paint. OH NO!!
Sure enough, in my haste to move forward with the project I cut a corner. I moved too fast. The ceiling paint had not dried sufficiently. Now I have to repair the work I did so lovingly. I have to go back and prepare the ceiling again then repaint the parts I messed up.
Of course you see the allegory. I took two steps forward and one step back. This happens. Sure, I could have (and in hind sight should have) waited to paint the walls until the next day when the ceiling paint would have certainly been dried. But I really want to finish this project. I moved forward with confidence but made a small error. Ready, Fire, Aim.
I do it all the time. Ready, Fire, Aim is part of my genetic make-up I think.
Making a mistake in your job search or in your career progression is almost never fatal. A misstep requires a pause, reassess, then step forward with confidence to try again.
What will you do in 2014 to achieve your goals? Perhaps you had a misstep in 2013 or perhaps you have a big challenge in front of you? Or perhaps you must fill a vacancy on your team? All challenges require a plan. How do you plan to achieve the objective? What tactics will you use? What is your contingency for mistakes, because you will make a mistake somewhere along the way.
Don’t let the mistakes define you or change your plan. Ready, Fire, Aim happens to everyone. What you do after you misfire makes the difference. Do you Aim and make the correction or do you let the misstep define you forever?