The End Justifies... No, Wait, the Means Justify... Hang on a Minute...

I have this problem finishing things. Oh, I’m perfectly capable of getting my work done. In fact, I can handle anything that’s got a real deadline. It’s those projects that are a little more... nebulous that tend to get pushed aside.

I’ve found that this manifests itself in two distinct fashions. On one hand there are the projects that end up in perpetual limbo, the books that remain half-read, the home repairs that continually get added to the “to do” list. And on the other, those that could be called finished at any given point, but I just can’t help altering ad infinitum.

For the most part, I’m able to keep the things in the former set, if not top-of-mind, then at least somewhere in the shallow end. Periodically, one of them will bubble up to the surface, and I’ll get a little farther. We’ll shoot a little more video, I’ll get through a few more chapters, I’ll break out the toolkit. One of them will get finished — only to be replaced by four more. Maybe a part of it’s procrastination, but I think it’s more a matter of prioritizing; these things are all important, but, on a day-to-day basis, not as important as the dozens of other things that crop up.

As for the latter set, I’m sure an armchair psychologist could have a field day with my motivations. It’s easy to make fun of George Lucas or Steven Spielberg for continually adjusting their films years after the fact, but a part of me sees where they’re coming from. Hell, I’ve edited just about every post I’ve made here after the fact — spelling errors, hyperlinks, minor wording adjustments. In the end, I can never let something go if I’m the least bit convinced that I can make it better.

I guess that’s the nice thing about something like this weblog. There is no end; it’s all about the process.

Ah, that ending sucks. I’ll stick something better in later.