cf#76: look how far you’ve come

You are reading contentfolks—a fortnightly blend of sticky notes, big content ideas, and small practical examples. Thank you for being here! ~fio

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Hey there 👋

Let’s do an experiment together. At the end of this sentence, take a 20-second break and think of ONE specific content project that you a) worked on at least one year ago and b) are still very proud of.

Humour me—just 20 seconds.
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Done? Now answer this: if you were to do the same project today, would you do some, or even all of it, differently?

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Growth is rarely seen in the moment

Chances are, your answer to the question above is yes: you would probably do it differently. And, I will add, you would probably do it better—because of the growth curve you’ve been on since that project, and all the things you’ve experimented with, failed at, and learned from in the meantime.

This growth curve is a natural part of your career progression, but it’s not regularly acknowledged, let alone celebrated. Growth happens sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once, but is rarely seen in the moment; it only becomes evident later, and usually when an external event¹ forces you to actively compare the current and past versions of yourself.

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In my case, the external trigger was this newsletter turning 3 last week 🎂 🎂 🎂 To celebrate the milestone, I went and re-read the first issue:

It’s fun to look at that version of me who thought she had it all planned out and clearly had no idea what she was getting herself into. And yes, sure, I’d love to reach back in time and tell fio from 2020 to do several things both differently and better²—but mostly, fio from 2023 is in awe of the learning and improvement that has been happening over 76 iterations of the same thing.

I believe you’d have a similar experience if you went back to the project I asked about in the introduction and spent some time acknowledging how far you’ve come. I’m pretty sure that what felt hard back then is likely so obvious now that you can do it on autopilot, and maybe even teach it to other content folks.

You know it, I know it: it’s so easy to focus on things you are struggling with or haven’t done yet—but that growth curve right there, no matter how small it might look, is something you should always be aware of.

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We started with an experiment, so let’s close with another one: set yourself a weekly reminder for the next 3-4 weeks to take a step back, reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve upskilled yourself, and celebrate your growth.

In addition to making you feel good in the short term, this experiment has a bonus side benefit: the more you do it, the more you will come to realise there is a high chance future you will have mastered the content things that present you is struggling with. Isn’t that something?! Whether that’s in two days or two years, future you has got you covered.³

PS: you know what else I keep improving on, iteration after iteration? This 12-minute podcast side project that teaches you nothing about content marketing and a little (or maybe even a lot) about the humans behind it. A bunch of new episodes just dropped. Enjoy 🤘

1. For example: going through a performance review, rewriting your CV, preparing for a podcast interview, or running a retrospective.

2. Here’s a handy quote with a wonderful best → better → better → better progression: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Often (mis)attributed to the always scintillating Maya Angelou.

3. I suspect it might apply to a lot of other things in life, too ♥️