When a project or event ends, it’s tempting to ruminate over all the things you could have/should have done differently. Depending on your focus, this can be helpful or self-defeating.
If the focus of your thinking is on the past, you may find yourself losing confidence in your abilities as you tick off all the ways you could have done better. This self-flagellation serves no purpose other than to drain your self-esteem. However, if your thoughts focus on the future and how the project could be improved the next time, that process can be very helpful in identifying lessons learned for the next round.
We can always do more. The key is to put a period, not a comma, at the end of a project and let it stand. “The event was good. Next time it will be even better when we do X.” (period) vs. “The event was good, but we could have done X instead.” (comma)
Expend your energy on what comes next instead of getting stuck in the doom loop of regret over things you can’t change. Your confidence and project will both be better if you keep the emphasis on looking ahead, not back.
