How Did I Get So Jaded?

met. Many IT professionals have extremely high expectations of themselves, coworkers, their companies, and clients. This isn't bad, but it may be impossible to meet them consistently, which can set us up for repeated disappointment. In effect, we create our own self-fulfilling jaded view.

And how about a project that fails or involves a critical mistake? Did you take from that experience something to avoid or correct in the future? Did you derive information from the mistake that you could not have discovered otherwise? There might be aspects of even "bad" experiences that can help you at least frame them as "constructive."

To conclude, if we are willing to set more reasonable expectations, we increase our chances of meeting them, thus increasing our repertoire of positive experiences. We can also learn to seek the value of mistakes. Over time, this can turn our jade into a precious experience, gradually raising our expectations and increasing our ability to meet them more consistently. So I challenge you to choose to frame your experiences as learning rather than as bitter disappointment.