Resolving To Finish What I Start
As 2010 ended, I wrote a blog post for Dad Revolution titled: New Year, New Goals where I shared some of my goals for 2011. I’ve been thinking about this for a few days and think 2011 should be The Year Of The Completed Project for me. You see, I have this very bad habit of starting projects, getting distracted by something (e.g. sick child, another project, etc) and then never picking up that project again.
Last year, I began writing a story that had brewed in my mind for awhile. After a few weeks of writing, the inevitable happened. I got distracted and stopped writing for awhile. A few months later, I looked at my writing and decided to restart the story and head in a different direction. Again, distraction came and derailed my plans.
This isn’t to say that I’m going to try to go back and complete every single abandoned plan or project at once. There are too many abandoned projects and not enough Free-TechyDad-Hours to complete them in. Trying to complete them all simultaneously will just result in failure with the projects being set back down, still incomplete.
Instead, I’m going to think back on my incomplete projects and plans and come up with a few that I think should be revived. Then, I’m going to schedule a time to do them so that they don’t overlap too much. For example, our front door had some paint falling off of it when we moved in. I meant to fix that but other things came up and, before I knew it, the door has been half-painted for over 6 years. However, painting like this means keeping the boys busy elsewhere. (The paint I remove could contain lead. Plus open paint can + young kids = trouble.) So this project is not a good fit for winter. I don’t want to do this in the blistering heat either, so spring would be a good time to do this.
How can I guarantee that I won’t simply ditch my revived plans? Well, that’s Plan #1. I’m going to write a blog post about my plans, when I hope to begin and when I hope to finish them. I’ll post every month on how my plans are going. At the end of the year, with luck, I’ll have a few less incomplete projects on my list. To give myself a deadline for “Plan #1”, I’ll post the list next Wednesday.