Sticky Notes - Finish Strong

June 01, 2023 | Read Online

Finish Strong

Why creatives struggle with finishing the projects they start

Cole Schafer
June 01, 2023

Think of the worst roadtrip you’ve ever been on.

Now, think about getting 5-10 miles away from the end of that roadtrip and then having to do the entire goddamn thing again.

That’s Homer’s Odyssey.

During the Trojan War, the Warrior King Odysseus left his cushy life in Ithaca and sailed to Troy. The entire voyage took him a decade and he hit every red light, pothole and traffic jam you can think of.

Shit hit the fan when Odysseus was nearing the end of his voyage.

He was so close to Ithaca and his beloved wife Penelope (who had a behind on her that regularly caused 7-ship pile ups in the harbor) that he could literally see the smokestacks from his family’s bonfires.

So, Odysseus decided to lay down for a snooze.

Somewhere along the way on Odysseus’ journey, a god by the name of Aelous gifted him an oxhide sack that housed the adverse winds. While the king was counting sheep, a jack-ass got the bright idea to open Odysseus’s oxhide sack, certain the King was stashing away gold.

And so the moron slashed open the oxhide and the adverse winds whipped out like sprawling serpents, sending the sleeping Odysseus and his crew skirting back across the planet to Troy.

Imagine waking up from your nap, thinking you’re about to make love to your wife whom you haven’t seen in a decade, only to find you are thousands of miles away, back at the place where you had first began your journey on the other side of the planet?

When deep in the throes of a creative endeavor, it’s only human to let off the gas when the finish line is in sight.

The reason we do this can be explained through psychology. Psychologists have found that pursuing a goal is actually more fulfilling than attaining it.

Artists, writers, creatives, musicians and entrepreneurs are notorious for taking a project 70%, 80% and sometimes 90% to the finish line and then abandoning it suddenly for another project.

We can’t simply shrug this behavior off as “quitting”.

There’s more at play than this.

The reason creative people struggle with finishing creative projects isn’t because they’re “quitters” but because they are more incentivized by the process than the completion.

But, while the behavior is understandable, it’s inexcusable.

Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat put it beautifully…

“I start a picture and I finish it.”

Finish strong.

By Cole Schafer.

P.S. If this newsletter made you weak in the knees, do me a huge favor and tell one person to subscribe.

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