I Finished Something
Upon recommendation I read a book The War of Art. The book goes over showing up everyday to your craft and “doing your work”. It goes on about all the ways you will prevent yourself from working on your craft; from telling yourself you’re not good enough, or telling yourself that no one will like the work you have done. This book really helps with battling your inner critic. After reading this book I set out to work on my creative passions more regularly, and that has allowed me to create more than I have in the past. There was just one problem.
I suck at finishing.
I really do. Not with my day job, or my obligations. But with my personal projects, I rarely cross the finish line and ship my project. I’ll start working on a book of poetry, then I’ll switch gears to writing a memoir, then I’ll move towards launching a business. But for each project I start, for each great idea I have, and the end of the day I don’t “really” have anything to show for it. And I decided that needed to change.
So what did I finish?
A Children’s Book. I wrote it, I shipped it, and it’s now available on amazon.
Publishing a children’s book is something I have wanted to do for a long time but never had the guts to really go for it. Well I sat down one night and wrote it, but this time, I didn’t stop there. I reached out of Fiverr and had illustrations drawn. I photoshopped some of these illustrations to make a book cover, and then I used CreateSpace to put it all together. And I shipped.
I am proud to have finished this time around, and I am going to use this as a keystone for finishing the next time, and the time after that. Hopefully I can engrain not only a habit of constantly creating and building, but also of completing and shipping.
What are you working on? I’d love to hear about what you are going to finish and ship next.
