Year of finishing stuff

I posted this on G+ yesterday:

The Great Finishing Things Journey

In the personal reflection that is happening as I face major surgery next week I realized that I've left a lot of things unfinished. Now this is not meant to be morbid bucket list or a lamenting pile of regrets. It's simply a reminder for me to shit or get off the pot.

I start a lot of projects. I do a lot of planning. I get caught up in the 'oh shiny'. One of the things I've always admired in some people is their ability to finish things. Don't get me wrong, I do finish things, just not as many things as I start. You know, I do the one step forward, two steps back. Cha, cha, cha.

I'm a great project manager. I know how to plan, delegate, motivate; I just have a hard time doing it for/to myself.

I took inventory of uncompleted projects, I've already deleted ones that I will never finish, won't use, are no longer relevant, etc.

Knitting projects-25
Spinning projects-5
Sewing projects-8
Cleaning/decluttering projects-4
Writing projects-10

My goal is to change my Cha, cha to two steps forward, one step back. For every project I want to start I must eliminate two, by either finishing it or deleting/removing it. 

I haven't decided if I'm going to blog this journey or talk about it here. Any suggestions?

What do you use to motivate yourself to finish things? How do you push through the tedious part of projects? Are you secretly envious of folks who finish things too?


I got a few nice replies a some great suggestions. I spent the evening thinking about it more and what I really wanted to achieve. I ended up coming up with a few things that I don't want to happen.


I don't want to loose my creativity. In other words I don't want to be so stifled with schedules and 'must do's' that I loose the free-form thinking and doing that I love.


I don't want to spend my time griping about my family who seem to undermine all my efforts at cleaning and decluttering, and getting stuff done. They don't get things dirty or not put things away simply to piss me off and their demands on my time are legitimate and deserved most of the time.


So what do I want?


I want peace. I want accomplishment. I want beauty. I want love.


I desire to work towards a life rich with these things.


I am going to start to put my projects together with goals, task lists and time lines. Hopefully I'll be able to do that part while I'm on restricted movement during my recovery. 


I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, ideas. I'm over at G+ as Yakira Heistand. I hope to have an ongoing discussion about simplifying one's life here and over there.


"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."  Ralph Waldo Emerson


Yakira