I go back to a project after I messed it up by deciding quickly whether it’s a fix or a drop, and then doing that right away, before I’ve had time to take the mistake personally. A rejected video gets fixed the same day, because I always keep a saved draft to go back to. An app I didn’t need gets dropped, and I keep what it taught me. I’m still learning not to beat myself up in between.
Why does one mistake make me want to quit the whole project?
A messed up project can kick my insecurity into super high gear, and it’s hard to recover from that.
I think I know where mine comes from. Growing up, I was often told “oh, you were born for this” and “you’re a natural.” Well, that’s often not true. So many things in life take practice, and they take lots of fails before you learn how to do something well. I think hearing that I was a natural is part of why a mistake hits me so hard.
So I’ve had to switch my thinking to mistakes are learning. There’s that saying, fail fast. The quicker I make a mistake and learn from it, the more I’m learning and the better I get at the next thing.
Do I fix it or drop it?
Either one is fine, as long as I pick quickly. I make mistakes in projects all the time, and these three are the ones that taught me the difference.
| The mistake | What I did | How fast |
|---|---|---|
| A review video got rejected | Clipped a part out and resubmitted | Right away |
| I built an app I didn’t need | Dropped it and kept the lesson | Quickly |
| I picked the wrong topic for my first blog | Stayed, then sold it | 15 years |
The one I fix the same day
When one of my Amazon Influencer videos comes back rejected, my first thought is WTF. Then I go fix it right away, because I want those videos up and a rejected video isn’t something I want sitting.
It’s easy to go back in because I always save the drafts in the editing tool I use. I open the draft, clip something out, and resubmit it. The slow part is guessing what to clip, and I wrote about that in Why My Amazon Influencer Videos Get Rejected, and What I Do.
I’m learning not to beat myself up over a rejection or let it kick my confidence. It happens, it’s no big deal, and I go fix it. I also know what waiting does to a task, which I wrote about in How Do I Finish Things That Have No Deadline?
The one I dropped
I’ve built a few web apps that turned out to be something literally no one needs, not even me.
One of them was Grime Gremlin. I thought it would motivate me to clean the house more, and it turns out I didn’t need it. It was no different than checking off house cleaning tasks in Asana, so it became an extra thing to check on, and that was annoying. It backfired. Literally no one asked for it.
I beat myself up a little bit, and then I moved on. What I took from it is two rules for the next build:
- If I’m building it for myself, I have to ask myself more questions first.
- If I’m building it for other people, I need to do market research first.
I don’t regret building it, because the learning is in the building too. Not every seed I plant comes up, and I can still just build and learn afterwards. Once I realize something doesn’t work, I move on quickly and I don’t sit there and dwell on it.
The one that took me 15 years
My first blog is the slow version of all this. When I started, blogging was new, and all I knew was that I wanted to blog and make money from home. So I didn’t pick a topic I was passionate about. I followed the people who were doing well, which meant food blogging, and that was the worst choice for me ever.
I felt like a fraud for 15 years, which is insane. It had a good ending, because I sold the blog and I learned a lot, and I told more of that story in What to Do When You Feel Behind Everyone Else. The biggest thing I learned is to pivot and correct my mistakes a lot faster than that.
What makes it easier to go back?
For me it’s having a way back before I need one. The saved draft is why it’s easy for me to go into a rejected video, clip something out and send it back the same day.
The other thing is how it feels afterward. When I frame a mistake as something I got past, it’s almost a confidence builder. I crossed that bridge, I learned that one, and I can keep going.
Sometimes I write down what I learned, and sometimes it’s a mental note. If a small ritual helps you, write the lesson down in one line and then move on to the fix or the next thing.
Why does everyone else’s project look perfect?
Because what I see online is the highlight reel. I see the launch, and I don’t see the mistakes and mess-ups that came before a thing looked perfect on day one.
Today’s action
Decide what happens to the project you messed up
- Write the mistake down in one sentence, the plain version.
- Decide if it’s a fix or a drop. Either one is allowed.
- If it’s a fix, do the smallest repair today, before it sits any longer.
- If it’s a drop, write one line about what you learned and keep it where you’ll see it.
- On your next project, save a draft or a copy as you go, so going back is easy.
Frequently asked questions
How do I go back to a project after I messed it up?
I go back by fixing the mistake as soon as I can, before it has time to sit. It helps that I keep a saved draft of my videos, so going back means opening a file and changing one part. I’d much rather fix a small part than let the whole thing sit.
Should I fix a project or start over?
I can only tell you how I decide. If it’s still something I want, like a video I need up, I fix it. If it turned out to be something I didn’t need, like an app that only gave me more to check, I drop it and keep the lesson.
Why do I want to quit after one mistake?
For me it’s insecurity. I grew up being told I was a natural at some things and not others, and I think that’s part of why a mistake hits me so hard. I’ve had to learn that so many things take practice and lots of fails.
Is it okay to abandon a project?
Yes. I’ve dropped apps I built and I don’t regret building them, because the learning was in the building. What I’d do differently is drop a wrong thing sooner. I stayed on the wrong blog topic for 15 years.
How do I stop beating myself up over mistakes?
I’m still learning this one. What helps me is treating a mistake as something I got past, because that builds a little confidence. It also helps to remember that what I see of other people’s projects online is the finished version.
Where I am with this
Going back to a project after I messed it up comes down to deciding quickly whether to fix it or drop it, and keeping a saved draft so the fix is easy. Messing up is part of the process, and I’m still learning not to take it personally. Pick the project you’ve been avoiding and decide today which one it is.
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