Mounting TV above fireplace made me rethink every cable run

Last month I helped my sister move into a new place outside Austin. Her living room has this big stone fireplace and the only spot for the TV is above it. I've done this before. Always just ran the cables straight down the wall and hid them in a raceway. But she wanted it clean. No visible raceway. So we had to fish the HDMI and power cable through the wall cavity. Took us 4 hours. Two trips to Home Depot. Had to cut drywall behind the mantle and patch it twice. That whole time I kept thinking about the order of operations. Should've mapped the whole path before cutting anything. Checked for studs, fire blocks, the brick lip, everything. Now I do that for every job, even simple desk setups. Walk the route first. Dry fit the cables. Then touch the tools. Anybody else have a project that taught you to plan the path before pulling wire?