Why do we start but don't finish our projects?
Over the years, I've started so many projects I lost count. But what I hate about it is that I also quit about 99% of these projects.
Sometimes, it was because it didn't feel right anymore, or I got bored with it, but other times, I just quit and didn't really know the reason.
Here's what my process looked like:
1. I have a new idea
2. I get super excited and dive straight into the rabbit hole of researching
3. I tell people that I'm going to be starting this new project to get even more hyped up
4. I fantasized about how it was gonna look like in a few months or even years and created unrealistic expectations
5. Then, some more research on how to actually start this thing
Most of the time, I would get so overwhelmed and had no idea where to start that my excitement crashed, and then I never went back to that idea again.
And then this became another stick to beat myself up with. Another project failed, another thing I couldn't see through to the end.
It's not great for my self-esteem, as you can imagine.
But why do I quit these projects?
Well, thanks to Jake from the Creative Hackers, I learned about the expectation gap. This is the gap between the reality of a project and my unrealistic expectations. You know, perfectionism.
So when you start a project, you have these enormous expectations of where you want to go and how it needs to look, but the problem is that it needs to be more realistic. You are trying to make it perfect, which we all know is impossible. And if you can't do it perfectly, why bother anyway?
Or at least that's what our brains tell us.
We believe that when we're chasing our goals and dreams, we should always feel good, but in reality, we feel like shit most of the time.
So, how can we stop repeating that same circle of quitting?
We have to take away the pressure of perfectionism. Hello, experimental mindset. Instead of investing our whole life into one thing, see if you can treat it as an experiment.
Experiments are simply testing the water to see if we enjoy this. It's not about results or perfect content. It's having fun with it.
That's basically how I've been treating this newsletter. If you've been with me long enough, you might remember I started the year with photo diaries and then moved on to more of the written word.
So remember, perfectionism is killing your projects. Treat them as experiments to take off the pressure!