From The Organizer Lady’s newsletter today:
COMPLETION ANXIETY
Messies often wonder at a phenomenon they see in themselves—their own reluctance to finish projects.
You know the story. You begin a project enthusiastically, work on it with vigor, but just before it is fully completed, the air goes out of your interest. The materials you are using are left sitting out or the papers are set aside waiting for your interest to rekindle. But it just doesn’t seem to happen. Not only is this frustrating because the job is left hanging over you, but it leaves a mess behind.
This phenomenon has been labeled completion anxiety.
What is going on here? One idea is that if and when we complete a project, the result will be evaluated either by others or by ourselves. Since we are perfectionists, this idea of evaluating the finished project makes us very nervous. Not finishing helps us to avoid that discomfort.
Is there an answer to this problem so we can move on to a more productive way of life, one in which we complete the jobs we start? The only answer is to challenge the underlying perfectionism. We do that by facing our fear and doing what scares us, finishing the job. In this case, the JUST DO IT slogan definitely applies.
That one certainly hit me where I live!
