Same Idea, Better Take

Without realizing it, I wrote the same post twice. Sort of. In “Mood and Music” and “Moods & Music,” I followed the same idea: Your mood should affect your choice of music, but your choice of music can also affect your mood.

There’s only a one-month gap between the two iterations, but the second one is shorter. Punchier. More sophisticated. Even without being explicitly called to the mat, my inner editor showed up for round two and said, “Let’s refine this.” It’s cool to see it working without forcing it.

Whether you forget what you wrote about or not, sometimes, your second take is better — even if the idea hasn’t changed. Don’t be afraid to try the same thing again. To repeat yourself or make a similar mistake. You never know when your timing will be excellent, and you’ll still learn something new when treading on old paths.

Nik

Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.