Not sure whether this counts as a failure or not, but it is a situation where I had a chance to achieve a goal and didn’t. So you can decide for yourself.

I have recently been on the search for a job in London. My search was focused primarily on getting a job at an ad agency (which happens to be goal 17).

I had reached the second round of interviews with two agencies, and performed really well in the first of them. Then I was offered a job as online marketing manager at a company called Truphone. Not an agency job, but an opportunity too good to pass up.

So I took up the offer, over the two potential agency jobs. It was tough to do, because ever since I arrived in London, I was thinking ‘agency job, agency job, agency job’.

But as much as I would have liked to knock goal 17 off my list, it wouldn’t have been the smartest move. As important as Project 183 is, I still have to remain open-minded and willing to make decisions that will impact on my ability to achieve a goal, if the overall benefit is better for me. In this case, it is.

So that is my take-out – always be open-minded to new opportunities, even if they mean heading in a different direction to the one you had planned.