This image illustrates what your emotions go through when taking on a project. Note in the middle is the "Dark swamp of despair", and the bridge over it is "belief / persistence". Once you persist over the swamp, you start to regain your confidence in the project, and can soldier on to a satisfying conclusion. The post I pulled it from is here: https://john.do/inevitable/ . I should inform you that the graphic is a refactor from a post by the same author in 2016, which was "stolen" (possibly) from "Steal Like An Artist" (2012), which was in turn "stolen" from Maureen McHugh (but the author published the credit in their book). I like the general concept of the really low point during the project, when many many people abandon it. This has happened to me time and time again.
You can easily identify a worthy desire as something that often pops up in your head as something you would like to see done. Other desires come and go and don't come back again, but the desires that repeat and repeat are worth fulfilling. When you have such a desire, you may be dissuaded by the number of steps to fulfill that desire. Here is one thing you can do to reduce that gulf. Next time you think of that desire, think of one step you can take right now to get closer to it, and then take it. That step could be one of a number of things: it could be purchasing materials, removing an obstacle, or other things. Once you have that simple single task, complete it. Preferably you thought of a simple task that only takes a few minutes to do, or is only one trip to the store. Next time you encounter that desire, you can repeat this process: either bring one more piece to the table or remove one obstacle, or whatever is needed. Eventually, you will run out of preliminary steps, and th...
I really wanted to share this, because it makes a good point of dividing your potential projects into the categories of "experiments" and "commitments". The idea being if you label something as a "commitment", you commit to finishing the project through thick and thin. If you label it an "experiment", then you can push as far as you like, then abandon the experiment if you feel like you can't derive anything more useful from it. And, of course, if you feel the need to re-label something, you can do that. The point is to make a habit of finishing things when you commit to them. https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2015/04/01/finish-what-you-start/
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