Long-term goals.

They’re something we all aspire to have.

These goals can help set a clear structure as you work towards achieving them.

I love setting goals and creating a roadmap of objectives, but it’s only recently that I’ve become self-aware of something I love so much more. Shiny objects.

It’s time I talk publicly about my shiny-object addiction, and the steps I’m taking to recover.

I absolutely love learning. When I started my career 3 years ago, I was infatuated by how much there was to learn across the digital industry.

As a Digital Marketer, I took it to myself to know as much as I possibly could about all facets of the landscape.

Then I started to consciously develop my personal brand. This allowed me to not only learn new skills, but also create content – sharing my newfound knowledge with the industry.

This desire to learn and create has become my new obsession.

In the digital industry, there’s an endless stream of key areas to grasp.

Working in tech startups, I was always fascinated by not just digital marketing, but also software development and UX/UI design.

When you develop a new interest, you’ll find it’s easy to get distracted amongst the endless amount of valuable resources available.

In fact, it wasn’t long before I realised something valuable about learning; 

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

It’s not uncommon that I’d be browsing Twitter or LinkedIn, only to find an interesting machine learning article shared on a topic of interest.

Although the article might only take a few minutes to read, it’s the ongoing research tangent into related areas that starts to deteriorate my focus.

This was how I started falling in love with shiny objects.

I became fixated with learning quick insights, allowing me to turn that into content for my network.

Learning is an incredible experience, but I found that these instances were soon consuming time from my original task at hand.

Add to this the desire to always experiment with new tools and tech, the need to follow trends from others in the industry, and the FOMO of missing networking events – you can soon start to see how these shiny objects can become quite distracting.

It’s only recently that I’ve learnt to prioritise my long-term objectives and let some of these shiny objects slide.

With plans to pursue my own ventures, I’ve started becoming more stringent with how I allocate my time.

It hasn’t been easy, but I know it’s for the greater good.

I certainly have no intention to stop learning, but for now, I’m prioritising tasks that are relevant to my future goals.

Curiosity is a beautiful thing. In the digital industry, having a willingness to learn is essential to remaining relevant.

It’s important, though, to find a fine balance between remaining focussed and learning new skills that are relevant to your end goal.

What are your shiny objects? Shoot me a tweet or a DM and let me know what guilty pleasures you have when it comes to learning.

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About me: 

I’m a twenty-three-year-old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.