WIPs

Inside top of my "Magic Mushroom"
One of my Works in Progress

WIPs (Works in Progress)

This seems to be a common aggravation of many artists and crafters: We start many things that we don't finish.

I think that there are two reasons that we don't finish projects:

• The amount of work needed to finish the work is overwhelming. Maybe we didn't realize how much work would be required when we started.
• We have simply lost interest and love for the project. There are no points here for finishing for the sake of finishing. If you don't love it, you are wasting your time.
  

I have several of WIPs myself and I actually had to let a lot of the old ones go. I chalk those projects up to a learning experience. I had to come to terms with the fact that I didn't have the passion to finish them. There is nothing wrong with letting an old project go because you're actually making room for the new projects that you will create with your honed skills.

For the projects that you do still love and want to finish, my suggestion is this:

1. Make a list of the projects that you still love and want to finish. (If you have too many, try to let a few go. It feels good to give away or simply throw away things that you don't love).
2. Place a checkmark by the one that you want to finish the most or at least first.
3. Ask yourself what one small thing you can do to progress on that project. So many times we become overwhelmed by the amount of work that we must put into a work to finish it. We can go under the radar of overwhelm by thinking of one tiny, little step to finish. And only do that tiny little step.
4. Repeat step 3 until your project is done.
5. Repeat steps 1-4.