When the project is both confusing and demanding, how do you find the personal energy to get from start to finish?
Nil desperandum. (Never despair.)
— Horace
This past week I powered through a very taxing financial project fraught with a multiplicity of confusing tasks, much personal angst and boat-loads of self-doubt and recriminations. As I transitioned from one challenging task to the next I had to fight the urge to flee, to bug-out, to give up, to throw in the towel…
I knew from past experience that if I just kept going all would eventually come together and make sense. So I nursed myself through the “ordeal” with many mini-breaks along the way. My mantra went something like this:
- I’m almost there…
- It’ll all come together in a flash if I just keep at it.
- Don’t quit now.
- I’m almost there.
- Keep going…
And so it went:
- Little by little
- Not done yet
- Enough for now
- Enjoy small victories
- Replenish
- Refresh
- Begin again
- Little by little…
- Not done yet
Gradually the gargantuan project became seemingly manageable. And then, wonder of wonders, I started feeling a sense of closure: I could see the end. I felt capable if not competent in the tasks I’d completed and was starting to get the gist of what else needed to be done.
Then, finally. I was DONE! Mission accomplished. I sighed a most wondrous AHHHHH! …and headed for the post office where I waved it good-by.
And despite the feeling that I should be grunting back into the grind of all the work I’d put aside for the duration, I gave myself the rest of the day off. I’d earned it. I survived to work another day.
As you plow through your own daunting challenges, indulge yourself in this moment of respite: Turn on your sound. Then watch, listen and enjoy: The Don’t Quit Poem. No time for that? Then here’s the final verse…
- Success is failure turned inside out—
- The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
- And you never can tell how close you are,
- It may be near when it seems so far,
- So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—
- It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
Yeah, it’s mushy but true, true, true. Hang on and keep going. Little by little the work gets done, you’re almost there.
Processing... 
Posts
Comments
We all get bogged down from time to time. I use the “chunk it down” method. I divide the project into smaller chunks either by time spent or logical segments. Then I reward myself after each accomplishment. Usually the entire project is just overwhelming and I feel I’ll never get it done. But some progress is better than no progress. And it makes me feel better to have a bit less to do on the next try. Janie