All Good Things… Be Kind, Rewind. · 10:47pm Jun 18th, 2020
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18th June 2020
Hello, Chaps and Chapettes,
Let’s say you started a project, you got so far into it, and then the magic left you. For whatever reason, whatever you were doing became disenchanted to you, the spell was broken and you lost the drive or the interest in doing it. What do you do now?
Sometimes the idea you were working on was something you really had a passion for, other times it could just have been a possible opportunity that you were hoping would go somewhere, or just something you felt you had to do but hadn’t really got the eagerness to see it through. In this case, you first need to decide which of these is true and whether it is important to your core values whether you continue the work when you have had a (small!) rest from it. Would you want to continue it at a later date or see the task through to completion? If the answer to either of these is no, then the smart thing to do would be to step away from it. You’ll only do half a job if you do attempt it. If it’s necessary, then you may need to speak to somebody else to see if they can complete the task for you.
Now let’s say that you do want to see the job through to the end despite dropping off from it because you still have an interest in seeing the finished result. Again, ask yourself if you really have the energy to complete this. Do you really feel you are doing it justice by continuing with it? Do you feel you would not prosper from other projects if you were to drop this one? Again, if the answer to these is in the negative, you may want to review the pros and cons of your decisions first. Wherever the pros are strongest are worth considering when moving forward.
And here, we come to the point where you know this project is your passion, you know you are the right person to complete it and you know you want or need to finish this before you move onto anything else. Now, what do you do? Well, it’s a good idea to check what made the job hard for you in the first place. Was someone supposed to help you but didn’t pull their own weight? Did you simply get stuck and couldn’t get the right advice? Did you work yourself into exhaustion and lose steam rather than the fires go out completely? Whatever the matters are or were, you need to put actions in place to change these and solve them. If you do not, the same problems will return upon your next attempt. Don’t worry if there are several stops and starts, it just means you still need to find and resolve all the troubles keeping you back before you can proceed.
However, if you’ve done all of that, you’ve got the want to do the thing. You’re the right pony for the job. You thought you knew what stopped you before and you’ve moved, changed, and pushed away everything that stopped you but you’re still stuck, what now? There’s no way it’s going to happen, right? You might as well pack it up and call it a bad job, right?
Right.
Stay safe, stay happy.
All good things,
Love, Scaramouche.
X
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Just kidding.
Well, almost.
You see, sometimes you can continue with a project that you believe, hand on heart, is going to be good eventually, and labor on it until it drains you physically and mentally. However, this isn’t always a good thing. On Dragon’s Den (or Shark Tank) you often see people exhaust themselves inventing, manufacturing, and trying to sell a product they wholeheartedly believe in, but those with the knowledge know it is not as grand or unique as they believe. Sometimes you have to take stock of what you’re valuing. Is it really as important to others as it is to you? Even if not, you should evaluate the importance vs the cost to you. If it is important to you, I would never suggest giving something up because others don’t get it. I would ask to check whether the cost is greater. Could you lose wealth, or health, or friends to it? If so, I would advise that this would be the time to stop, before the fee is greater than the reward.
Whether you choose to continue at this point or stop, the next point can be considered, as it is the last on my checklist. Can you rewind? Sometimes we think that, if we get to an unnatural end of a task, then we will simply have to walk away from it and never return. This doesn’t have to be the case. Look at what you’ve learned from getting this far! Can you not take that knowhow, turn back the clock, and make a fresh start? Regardless of whether people have seen the thing or not, there is still time to try again. There’s always an opportunity to look at a hobby, enterprise, or skill with fresh eyes. As they say, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Take what you know now and do it better the next time.
So those are my suggestions if whatever you are working on has become stagnant. This list has been fruitful for me, I hope it is for you too, and if you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them.
Stay safe, stay happy.
All good things,
Love, Scaramouche.
X
Great advice all around, Scara! Sometimes one has to know when to cut their losses or forge ahead when they truly believe in what they are doing and what they want to achieve.
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Thanks, Olden, you're absolutely right. Sometimes you can perfect and polish what you started, sometimes you need to accept that it isn't working and isn't right, thus letting it go is healthier.
All good things, Scara x