by LK Weir

Starting a project is fun. Full of potential energy to power the initial stages. The planning, the purchasing, the first few steps towards completion. Energy to get the task moving, without a single doubt that the energy is enough to pull you through to the end. And what a beautiful finished project it will be—the portrait, flower garden, new business, manuscript…

The hardest part of any project is finishing it. 

A few days go by, weeks, months and one odd day it dawns on you. The potential energy fizzled out. You don’t know when it stopped, it just did. And now the project sits, partially completed and itching to be finished. 

“I struggle to finish anything I start. Reading a book, painting by numbers, even menial tasks such as cleaning out a closet. I feel the energy to start, get excited about how it will make me better, and then promptly forget that I set out to do the task in the first place.” — LK Weir

It’s a frustrating conundrum because, let’s face it, we are all busy people. Sometimes a project just gets forgotten about. Or subtly ignored until we walk by the half-finished construction for the hundredth time and our loved one asks us why we never finished… sigh. 

Not finishing used to be my greatest weakness. It made me feel like I would spend my life never fully realizing my potential. That all my energy would be wasted and I would be left feeling inadequate. 

Until I made a change. 

It started with books. I love stories, but every time I picked up a novel, I would stop after the first few pages and not give it enough time to get ‘hooked’. So I made myself a promise. If I started a book, I would deliberately finish it. No matter how hard it might be.

The goal would be small. A step I could take each day. If I had to, I would put the book on my pillow or plaster sticky notes around my room to remind myself that I had to hit that goal every day—15 minutes of reading or one chapter a day. A goal that, in itself, was not difficult to achieve. 

And it turned out to be fun! Who knew that there were so many great novels out there? I would never have found a love for reading if I hadn’t forced myself to read enough to get ‘hooked’. Finishing the book was easy after that!

I realized the issue was not with my ability but with my mindset. Energy takes work (sounds obvious doesn’t it?). I was naïve in thinking that potential energy would pull me through to the project’s end, but in reality, I had to reconstruct that energy on a daily basis. Small intentional bursts, directed at the thing I wanted to achieve. 

So I took this tactic and started applying it to bigger and bigger projects. The rule was, if I started something, I had to finish it—even something as big as a manuscript. 

Getting it right took a while, but in the end I settled on mounting my projects on the wall. I would list the end goal, the steps to get there, and the task I had to perform each day. A daily burst of intentional energy, 15 minutes, one chapter, 1000 words. Whatever was achievable and I could feel proud of. 

Potential energy is unsustainable because it’s not real energy.

Real energy is intentional, directional and used to further ourselves. It’s replenished by the feeling of accomplishment we get when we complete that task, that step, that goal, and ultimately that project. 

So turn that potential into actual; finish that project one small task at a time! I promise, it will feel fantastic.