I started a crocheting project last year. It was supposed to be a prayer shawl. Didn’t turn out the way I hoped so I moved on to Plan B and decided to redo it as a scarf. Growth mindset and all that. Well, Plan B didn’t turn out as I had hoped, either.
Fast forward to today. I’ve spent the better part of two days trying to get my office organized between my business “stuff” and my teaching “stuff” and all the other “stuff” that has somehow migrated to my office over the past year or two. What should I come across tucked in the back of the closet? You guessed it. The abandoned crocheting project. My first instinct was to throw the whole thing away. But “waste not want not” was screaming in my head and I just couldn’t bring myself to be wasteful, so I decided to take the project apart, roll up the yarn, and donate it.
Things were going great until the yarn somehow ended up in a big tangled mess. Well, I got that sorted out and I was off and running until it happened again. And again. And each time I got a little more frustrated and a little closer to throwing it in the garbage.
Then I started to think about how this was such a blatant metaphor for my life. As in smacked me up the side of the head. How often have I started something new for my business, all gung-ho and ready to go, but not finished what I started because things got hard and messy and all tangled up (mostly in my head).
I started so many great things for my business in 2020 and now they’re hanging like a yoke around my neck because I got tired, frustrated, and overwhelmed and went for the next easy shiny object. Not a great way to grow a business.
It’s easy to start something new but not always easy to finish. It’s like running a race. Easy in the beginning, hard at the end. But if you can just keep going and get across the finish line, it’s like winning the lottery (not that I know what winning a lottery is like but I can imagine).
So, I’ve decided not to overthink things and to focus on those projects I started earlier this year and bring them into 2021 until they are complete. No new shiny objects. No new books. No new initiatives. No new projects. As I check off my “completed” items, I’m excited to see where it takes me, my business, and all the people I’m going to help in the coming year.
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