Always a Work-in-Progress

I went to Arizona for a little over a week. And while I still believe that trip was life-changing, I returned also feeling extremely disappointed. As if a weight I had been hoping to release off my shoulders became even heavier.

Not only did I fail to work on my work-in-progress, but I came back with this:

{and no I wasn’t trying to delete my husband from the photo.}

It disturbed me on many, many levels. (In fact, I’m still not ready to talk about it and when I am, I’ll probably discuss it on my inspiring blog.)

But it also felt spine tingling familiar. As if I seen this before. Take a look at the photo below and see if you can guess what I mean.

This no photoshop required hot mess reminded me of what it feels like to come face to face with an unfinished piece of work. Skin crawling, anxiety provoking, knot in your stomach feeling.

Maybe it’s the essay you left undone, the novel you never quite got to, or the article that actually has a deadline that you’ve been too holiday busy to work on. Yikes!

A psychologist once told me that writers and all creatives are the worst when it comes to left-brained tasks like deadlines and procrastination. Maybe the reason why these unfinished photos were so upsetting was that it reminded me about my fear of never seeing the finished project.

We can let our fears manipulate us into putting everything else above our work. And the fear can feel very real. There’s always bills that need to be paid and mouths that need to be fed right? And the holiday party? The Christmas decorations? The shopping list? They all need your attention to.

But what do we have if we don’t keep at it?ย Many years later staring at a blank photo. A half-assed picture. A never fully competed project. That’s much too scary for even me to take.

So what do you do?*

Is this scare tactic enough to get you to re-start that unfinished project? Do you have your own system for keeping at it?

Maybe your work-in-progress won’t be in progress anymore and the result? It’ll look more like a finished photo:

*If you need some tips, you might want to read my latest article for The Writer magazine on how to juggle the holidays and your writing here.

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2 Comments

  • Cathy Miller

    I look at being a work-in-progress as a good thing. Otherwise, you’d be dead. ๐Ÿ™‚ I don’t mean that in a snarky way, but there’s a very important word there, Brandi-progress. Growth and learning and baby steps are all progress. And it’s really what’s life is all about.

    Your work-in=progress comrade, Cathy ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Anonymous

    Lol! Point taken Cathy. Maybe the goal isn’t to complete all of our unfinished business, but to tackle the ones we’ve been avoiding. That’s what happened when a half-finished picture reminded me of one meaningful project I’ve been neglecting. But there’s no way I could tackle them all. Maybe if I did, it’d kill me for sure. =)