find your forest
](http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_lockie/)it’s going to happen. no matter how much you plan ahead, or how much you think you might know — how comfortable you are in your abilities… you’re going to lose sight of your overall vision.
scope creep happens, and unfortunately it happens often. we all want to create amazing things, and we all want to deliver the very best we can to our clients. many times it’s the client who makes the changes! but either way, changes happen. instead of doing x, we do x and add on y because it makes x better in some way.
one of the most difficult things to do is telling ‘no’ to people who say, “you know what would be good?…” but there are times when it’s absolutely necessary. why? well no matter what you’re doing, you always have a main mission; every step you take along the way should be made to help you reach that end state. simply put, anything else is ancillary. so why do we always lose sight of where we’re going?!
because it’s fun to be creative! it’s awesome when you sit down, talking either among your internal team or with various members of the client’s organization and brainstorm new ideas (new ideas grow the business after all). we often get into situations when we have status updates and look at our progress only to find things that we want to change, areas for improvement. unknowingly, we tend to jump in without putting a toe in the water first.
in every project you do — maybe even every task — you have to set up points in time to have a reevaluation of your situation. ask yourself: “what am i supposed to be doing?what am i doing? does this get me closer to my end goal?”if you don’t set up these meetings or times for personal reflection, you’ll lose sight of what your original purpose was and find yourself slipping off track.
so set some time aside periodically to step back from what you’re doing; stop focusing on the trees, and find your forest.