I have always found great enjoyment from starting new projects. I crave the burst of inspiration and excitement that comes from embarking on a new venture. Learning something new, gaining new skills and navigating the difficult waters really fuels my internal fire. But, as the famous expression goes, “Well begin is half done.” Where I fall down is in sticking with this new endeavor after the shiny newness has worn off and it becomes another routine task. My first impulse is to set the old thing aside and reach for something else that’s all sparkly and new and calling out for my attention.

In my life as an artist I fall squarely in the process rather than product camp. I have been knitting since the first grade, and I find great enjoyment from choosing the right pattern, yarn and needles and setting off to create something fabulous. But unless it’s something small that can be completed fairly quickly such as a hat or a bag, I tend to lose interest after awhile and begin looking for another project to start. In knitting parlance a ‘UFO’ is an unfinished object, which is a WIP (work in progress) that has been abandoned. As my UFO pile began to grow I began to notice that it’s really the process of creating the thing rather than actually finishing the thing that has been getting me all excited.

Recently I have seen how this habit has crept into my working life. Now that I am self-employed I must guard my time carefully. I must choose what is the highest use of my time and focus on those things first–the things that will generate revenue and move my business forward. Since I recently added blog flipping to my business model, I have found that I am allowing myself to get bogged down in fussing over every little detail of the sites I create. I am enjoying the process of building the new sites, writing the content, creating videos, and finding photos for the blog entries. If I keep fussing over every site and saying, “Let me add just one more thing,” then I never get to finish it and the WIP quickly turns into a UFO. I created a site last fall with the intention of flipping it, but have I sold it yet?

As this all became clear to me as I lay in bed with thoughts about my newest site in development swirling around in my head I came to the startling conclusion that it’s fear that is keeping me from finishing the damn thing, listing it for sale and starting another site project. I can see that I must hug this monster taking the energy of the fear surrounding it and translate it into momentum to move me forward. It takes courage to feel the fear and act anyway. I was thinking that if I struggle with this bugaboo than there may be other people out there with UFOs languishing that just need a little kick in the pants to get them to finish it.

Today I am going to be about finishing what I have started. I will list that site I’ve been fussing over and begin again.