I’m a serial project starter. I come up with ideas that always feel like the best idea I’ve ever had. I’m motivated and excited by what this thing could be. It’s energising and all-consuming. Then, I start the work.
Soon enough, the initial burst of energy fades away, and I end up puzzled. That thing I started is just hard now. It’s boring. I’ve had a million other ideas in the meantime, and they’re all much more exciting than the one I’ve slogged away with over the last few weeks. The temptation is to drop what I’m doing and follow the new shiny thing.
But if a project is never finished, then no one can ever see it. And if no one can ever see it, then why did I spend all that time at the start doing it? Sure, it was fun. But what’s less fun is having one hundred unfinished projects laying about the house. When you see that work piled up, it can be quite de-motivating. Suddenly, even starting something new starts to lose its lustre.
When something is finished, when it has an end, it’s something that people can begin to respond to. No one can say you wrote a great story if the story only has a beginning and a middle. No one can love your painting (even you) if you’ve stopped at the underpainting.
Just. Get. To. The… End
When people respond to a finished work, it means something. People either hate it, love it, or they aren’t moved by it all. And that’s all OK. The response might guide you to your next project. It might be encouraging. It’s feedback to say, “Do more of that please, that added value to my life. I enjoyed it too.” And if you get the opposite response? Find out why? Art is subjective, sure, but maybe the viewer has some excellent insight into your work that you never saw while you were making it. It might be the key to unlocking your next project or taking your practice to the next level in some way.
So, when you start something, finish it. It sounds simple, but practising getting to the end is a skill that takes effort and time. And when you see someone else feel the way you did when you first started the project, well, that feeling becomes addictive.