…or at least these 6. I had a small video project to do.  I’ve never done  a video.  I have a Flip Video camera . I wrote the script.  I was ready to go.  But, I had a zillion other things to do as well.  So, I ended up getting pretty much nothing done.  I just couldn’t get motivated.  It occurred to me that how I approached this porject is not unique to how I approach other new, challenges.  In the hopes of helping you avoid having a similar experience, I want to share what went wrong.

1.  I didn’t set a deadline.  I never committed to getting the video done by a specific time.

2.  I didn’t determine my priorities.  Each time I’d think about working on the video, thoughts of another project crept in to my head and I’d get distracted.  I’d tell myself I’d do the video as soon as I finished x, y and z.  By the time I did those things, plus anything else that came along, it was too late to do the video.  At the end of the day, I was exhausted but felt as if I hadn’t accomplished the important things I needed to get done.

3.  I picked the low hanging fruit.  In my overwhelm, I worked on and completed the easiest, most obvious and urgent, short term projects, leaving the more challenging, complex, strategic, important long term things undone.

4.  I tried to do it alone.  Instead of asking for help, I struggled to figure out how to set up for the shoot and do it by myself.  As a result, I had ‘takes’ where my head wasn’t in the picture, there was dead air between the time I pressed the record button and got into position.

5.  I insisted on perfection, which, I actually never achieved (no kidding!)  When I finally focused on filming the video, I redid it over and over and over and over and over… I spent hours over multiple days filming a 5 minute segment.

6.  I had a constant stream of negative chatter going on in my head about the whole process which I let discourage and derail me.

Well, it’s finally done now.  And, I learned a lot of lessons in the process.  Maybe next time, I won’t make the same mistakes.  Maybe I won’t break all the rules.  And, with more awareness and practice, maybe eventually, I won’t break any.  At the very least, by sharing my experience, maybe I’ll help you avoid some of the pitfalls of doing something new.