It could just be because Spring is at hand, but recently I have been spending entirely too much time looking at "old projects" while trying to decide whether to just scrap them completely... or try to finish them.
I think one of the reasons I have at least mild "hoarder-ish" tendencies is that I feel reluctant to let go of things I have sunk significant time and effort into. I could call it a "fear of feeling like I wasted my time."
But the reality of this life that we don't always end up making the wisest and best choices.
Then ugly patterns from childhood suddenly appear out of nowhere and voices inside my head whisper "You should always finish what you start" and "people will think you're a FAILURE and a FLAKE if you don't finish that!"
Of course, they aren't my voices; they are the voices of my past... of parents; of people I chose to be in relationships with when I was quite young.
Of course, things don't get any easier when I have a financial investment in something, as well as a time and effort investment.
But sometimes we just have to let go, not only of our pet projects we'll likely never finish, but also of some of our dreams about things we intend to do "sometime in the future," but the passing of time makes it painfully obvious that "sometime in the future" has changed places with "never."
Now, if you're "on of those people" who immediately does everything you undertake from start to finish, this probably all sounds rather stupid!
For some of us, such things represent a genuine dilemma.
If you are a somewhat regular visitor to these pages, you might recall my writing about cleaning out my "drafts" folder because so many of the half-started articles were either antiquated, or I recognized that what was a good idea a some time in the past now sounds lame.
Of course, it's not limited to writing ideas.
When I was rummaging the closet in my home office, I came across supplies for creating artistic wood cuts to use as plates for hand printed art. It was one of those things I thought I really wanted to get into... at some point.
Now it's more a case of at some point very soon this stuff is going on eBay!
One of the "resolutions" I made at the beginning of the year was to limit the number of different things I'm actively working on to three things, and letting go of some of this old stuff will definitely be part of making it so I have fewer "distractions" around to keep me from doing what is most essential.
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the remainder of your week!
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Created at 2024-02-23 02:15 PST
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