I’m great at starting things.
I love going through a strategic planning exercise and seeing the possibilities in the future. Identifying new things that offer great promise.
It took me years to recognize that I’m bad at stopping things, at giving up and killing things off.
So year after year I’d start new things, while the pile of unfinished or incomplete projects pooled around my ankles.
“What about that webinar series? Or the book group? Or the…” My team would ask.
“Yes, we’ll get to that. But this is more important,” I’d reply.
So my to-do list would be crowded with things I’d promised my team I’d do. Littered with half-completed projects on the “back-burner.”
At some point, I learned the joy of letting things go
If I’m not making progress on a project at some point, I have to be realistic. This isn’t happening.
So I let it go.
Sometimes I delete the project off the status sheet; other times, I move it to my “Someday/Maybe” list. Either way, I let everyone know I’m no longer committed to that project.
Cutting that project off the list always feels a little like a death. I invested time and energy into that project. I can see how it would help if I got it done.
But I’m not getting it done…
What do you need to let go of today so that you can more fully engage with the things on your plate that you are making progress on?
New opportunities are coming your way. Your clients are asking you to shift and adapt to their new priorities; you can’t be nimble and agile, carrying around the baggage of past unfinished projects.
Let’s put them out of our misery!
