Unfinished Projects

I have a confession to make. I am notorious for not finishing projects. I'm not talking about work-related projects. These unfinished projects are those tasks in life that start out as a good idea and then fall to the wayside when life becomes hectic. Visit my room and you'll find half-read books, cross-stitch projects in various degrees of completion, and sundry other projects that I've begun.

Unfinished projects can drive some people absolutely insane. There are too many loose ends that simply have to be tied up. All projects should be completed before another can be begun. I'm just not that organized. Maybe the truth is that I suffer from ADD....I can work on a project until I get bored and then I need a change of pace.

Let me give you a few examples. I love to cross-stitch, but cannot bear to work on a small little item. They are uninteresting to me. I enjoy the big sprawling patterns with lots of colors and thousands of stitches. How many do I have in progress at the moment? I'm not at home right now, but I think it's either 4 or 5. Why so many? When I get tired of one pattern, I can switch to another. When I get tired of a color (like the greens in a garden scene), I can switch projects and colors. Since I don't have a pressing deadline -- and since Shane and Jacquelyn are already married -- there's nothing pressing. I generally find a couple of weeks each summer to stitch away. Here's the exciting news.....I may actually get ONE of these projects finished this year....but I'm not putting that kind of pressure on myself. It will be done when it's done.

As a collaborative pianist, I have mountains of photocopies music that I have acquired over the years. I have begun organizing it into a system that I can actually use. I've been working on this project for a year now. What's involved? Each photocopied piece of music is sorted by language and key. It's entered into a master database (if it's not a duplicate) and then filed alphabetically by title into one of five master binders. At this point, I have only filed the music I have acquired while working at Union. Now I'm beginning to tackle the stacks of music I played during graduate school. If we were able to turn the paper back into trees, I would probably have a small forest growing on my bookshelves at the moment!

Why can't I just finish a project and move on? I think it has something to do with the way my creative mind is wired. Until I'm absolutely sure the system I've developed is going to work, I don't want to invest too much time in case I need to make a change. The project I'm working on at this second sparks an idea that leads to a new endeavor. Do I finish every project I begin? Nope. Does that bother me? Not at all.....I know that part of being creative means daring to try things others wouldn't imagine and being secure enough to let things go that simply aren't working.