For some people, like myself, completing projects can be hard for many reasons. Sometimes we can simply lose motivation or interest in the project. Other times we lack inspiration to keep going forward, or we find something that captivates us more. And some other times, we don’t even know why we can’t advance further.
An interesting thing that I recently noticed, is that I often block at a precise point in the project. This point is when I have to make an important decision, a choice that will affect everything that follows. It happens when I have already invested many hours in the project, enough so that a potential error or bad decision could make it worthless, and restarting from zero is not desirable or practical.
Basically, more often than not, I get stuck because I’m too scared to make a decision, and suffer the consequences associated with it. So my response to that fear is to stop working on the project altogether. Which ironically, turns out having the same effect than what I was scared of in the first place…
It can’t really be avoided, because there will always be something that doesn’t go as planned in pretty much everything we do, so the answer is not about eliminating choices. In many cases, especially in creative work, there is not necessarily a good or bad solution. Although the choice we make will affect the outcome of the project and it can challenge our habilities or force us to use new methods. This is not a bad thing, because it will make us progress in our craft by forcing us to learn things we didn’t consider.
Furthermore, many of the reasons for abandonning projects that I mentionned at the beginning, such as the lack of motivation, interest and inspiration, could be unconsciously caused by that fear of making a bad decision, making the overall project seem less interesting.
But even knowing that, fighting fear is hard, and I can’t see much solution to overcome it other than just pushing ourselves to make decisions and take risks. But if you too are stuck with this fear, then becoming aware of it is already a step in the good direction, which could potentially lower the actual fear.