Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Finished yet?

I'm starting to sound like a broken record... has it really been that long since my last post? In the last few years I've noticed some common themes throughout my life.

  1. Their just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do, and still maintain a full time job. 
  2. I have a very hard time finishing anything. 

I've been thinking a lot about the first theme as my day job has been unbearably slow lately. Pile this on top of the fact that I've been working on a project at work that has been going on for 5 years now and has not even moved out of the initial design phase. Which leaves me a lot of time to think about all the projects that I could be building or working on, and even finishing, instead of sitting here at my desk wasting away. But then it always comes down to the bottom line doesn't it? Sitting here doing nothing somehow pays the bills while being productive in my home shop does not.... yet.

I wish I could attribute lack of time to the problem of not finishing things but I know it goes deeper than that. I love starting projects. The research, the planning, the design. That initial excitement of learning a new technique or how to use a new tool to complete that project. On more complex projects I have a tendency to get analysis paralysis. I get so involved in trying to figure out the "perfect" design, which includes every feature under the sun and meets all my needs in every possible way that I end up not even moving past the design phase. What's that saying, the perfect is the enemy of the done? I think this may be a perversion of a Voltaire poem but you get the idea.

On other projects I actually do get something built, but then halfway through I lose steam. Someone once told me it's because I love a challenge, and when I'm halfway through a project and I can foresee the finished product and that I can finish it and I lose interest. But can I actually finish it? Apparently not.

Luckily this all sounds worse than it is. I can finish things, the blog posts below prove that I can, I just find it challenging. Sorry for all the psychobabble. If anyone that reads this has the same problem or has some tips on overcoming this please feel free to comment or email me.