The mistake I always repeat, the one I'm trying to avoid making again, is getting too comfortable and lazy when things are going well for me.
Years ago, I had a small YouTube channel focused on uploading music. I was young, and so I didn't know much about copyright laws or anything of the sort, nor of how copyright strikes worked. I had the channel for several years, and it went well, providing me with a bit of income. Besides, I even helped a few small artists get a bit of exposure by uploading their songs and exposing them to my community.
In order to create and run the channel I had to learn a few skills such as video, photo and audio editing. It wasn't much, but those simple skills helped me do my work, which in return resulted in a bit of income.
I was happy with the channel until one day, after a few years of running it, it was cancelled after receiving 3 copyright strikes from one creator who wasn't happy about me uploading his work without asking. He was in the right and was completely allowed to do what he did. His actions resulted in the deletion of my channel, which made me quite bitter at the time. It was only later that I realized that he had all the right to do what he did.
Once the channel was down, I realized just how lost I was. I didn't really know how to do anything else, and I just lost my main source of income at the time. What was I to do?
After a bit of thinking and exploring I chose to start learning web design and development. I spent a year learning and practicing but when I couldn't make any money due to my lack of skill and experience, I switched to something more familiar that I already knew a bit about - graphic design.
I spent some time learning a bit more about Photoshop than I already knew, practicing and getting better at creating things, until I managed to create something good enough to upload on Graphic River. I didn't make any money immediately, but I kept on doing it, knowing from a trusted source that the website was legit and that you can make a decent income with it.
In a few months I had several packages uploaded and even made my first few sales. I kept on working, made some more money and once again, I got comfortable. I stopped improving, I stopped learning new things and trying to create new products and instead I spammed the only few types of design elements I knew how to create.
Things went well for a while, but because I got lazy again, everything was bound to go bad at some point. And it did. Soon after getting lucky with some sales, I started seeing a decrease in my overall income. People weren't interested any more. So I panicked again.
Instead of realizing my mistake and working hard to learn more and create better things, I chose the easy way out - I created an account on another website, Creative Market, and I started uploading packages there as well, different than what I had on Graphic River, but in the same style. I changed things a bit, but it wasn't anything new, or better.
Things went well again, so I got comfortable. I stopped learning, stopped improving, until everything went bad once more, and I panicked. So, I picked something new - 3D modelling. I learned how to create things with Blender, used my new knowledge to create some new types of packages, but when things improved, I stopped learning and improving again. Once things went bad, as they always do, I panicked, and picked something else - writing.
Writing has been going well for me, and I've been doing it for around 5 years now. I've had moments in which things went well, which made me get lazy, and moments in which things went bad, which made me worry and begin doing more work and learning new things.
As you can see, this is a mistake that I've been repeating again and again for a very long time with pretty much everything I did. Every time things started to go well, I became lazy and stopped learning / improving, only until the situation changed and I started panicking, which made me work and improve again.
For quite a while now I've been trying not to repeat this mistake again. I've been trying to learn new things and to work on new projects as much as I could, regardless of how well or bad my situation is.
The job that I currently have in Germany assures me of the fact that I'm doing and will be doing well enough financially for a while, which should, in theory, make me get lazy and not do anything else with my time, because there's no need.
However, now that I'm aware of my actions, I'm trying to keep being productive even outside of work, with the little time that I have. I'm reading a bit about philosophy, I'm tinkering with Linux and, the most important thing, I'm writing and posting all these articles. I don't have to do any of this, but I'm doing it all in order to avoid getting too comfortable again until things start going bad.
Doing this not only keeps me improving and getting better both at what I do and as a human being, but it also increases the possibility that things will go well for a longer time, since I'm constantly moving forward, instead of everything going bad one day when one small thing changes.
So here's what you can learn from my mistake: keep working and improving in your own time. Don't burn out, but don't be lazy either. Work on fun projects that push you forward, smaller or bigger, whatever you wish. Read books and expose yourself to educational content, be it through podcasts, movies, shows or just articles. Pick up new skills by trying out new activities, just to see if anything sticks.
Overall, avoid stagnating when things go well. Always try to move forward.