A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on the art of following through, in which I talked about the lure of the next shiny new thing and the difficulties we can have in completing our projects. 

After reading that post, one of my regular readers, R.S. "Dick" Webster emailed me with some additional thoughts on how to finish what we start that I thought were well worth sharing:

1. Make Notes/Journal

As Dick said, "Catch the meteors of creativity, ideas as they 'come to mind.'  'Write yourself out' as you go, preserving the fruits of your thinking. Then, when you wonder what to do next <grin> you can review your writing and pick an idea or two worth developing. 

For myself, I've definitely found that it can be helpful to maintain a journal to capture all of the ideas and potential projects that can crowd out my focus on what I need to finish now. (I've written about career journals here and here.)

I like Dick's point about "writing yourself out." Often if I just let myself go into flow, capturing all of the elements of an idea, then I will feel less pressure to do something right now about it. Of course I also have to make sure that I periodically review my old journals to see what old ideas I have lurking there. 

2. Learn/Practice Saying "No!" to yourself and to projects you don't really want to do.

Oh this is so HARD! Actually saying "no." What's interesting is that I will often passively say no to things by not following up, but the active, hard "NO!"--not as much as I should. 

Saying "no" isn't just turning down new projects, though. It's also saying "no" to distractions--to the 15 open tabs in my browser, to the TV, to the unnecessary tasks that may call to me. The challenge in all of this, I've found, is that many times what starts as a "distraction," can actually turn into something really important for my progress. So there's always a delicate balance between being open to serendipity and going down the rabbit hole of the Interwebs. 

3. Consider Your Capacity and Set Limits

 Related to saying "no," is the recognition that we need to set limits. Dick suggests no more than 5 projects at a time, although as a self-employed person, I've never been able to stick to that. There are the projects that need to be done now to bring in the money and then the projects I need to be working on to fill the pipeline for later. 

Still, I do try to at least pull together projects that can do double and triple-duty, building on what I'm doing in one area to move another area forward. 

Some Additional Thoughts on Resistance

In my previous post, I also discussed the idea that not following through is a form of Resistance, a concept that Steven Pressfield discusses at length in his must-read book for creatives, Do the Work. As so often happens when I start thinking about a concept, something arrives in my inbox that speaks to that point.

In this case, it's a nice podcast from Michael Hyatt, exploring the idea of Resistance and Pressfield's strategies for dealing with it. He also responds to some listener questions that are particularly relevant to the concept of following through--including, "What do you do when your own creativity becomes a form of Resistance?"

If you're interested in how your own habits of not finishing might be part of a Resistance pattern, I highly recommend starting with Michael's podcast as a good intro to the idea and then, checking out Steven's book. 

As I've been saying, following through is an important aspect of career resilience. Hopefully these ideas give you additional insight into and strategies for dealing with your own problems in finishing what you start.