[munificent]

Reposting an old Reddit comment of mine that I think agrees with much of this article:

I'm in my 40s and for most of my life I had an unending series of unfinished projects that I felt guilty about. Today, I am able to finish some stuff, including some pretty large, hard projects. Better, I don't feel guilty about the stuff I don't finish.

The trick for me is to be deliberate and mindful about why I'm embarking on a particular project.

If it's because I want to feel good by:

* Sharing something with others.

* Accomplishing a difficult, challenging task.

* Proving to myself that I can do something.

* Getting the social cachet of being a creative, productive person. (Maybe this is shallow, but who doesn't like to feel impressive in the eyes of their peers?)

Then the goal of the project is the product it and I focus my attention and discipline on it. I try to have as few of these as possible—like only one at a time—so that my willpower is not diluted.

If it's because I want to feel good by:

* Improving a skill.

* Exploring an unfamiliar domain or learning something new.

* Relaxing by tinkering on something I like.

Then the goal of the project is the process and I don't feel bad about not finishing. The real treasure is all the stuff I learned and did along the way and there is no real destination. I can have as many of these as I want because there's no real failure mode here. They're all recreation.

Once I got more honest and clear with myself about my goals for each project, I started to be able to finish the ones where that mattered and stopped feeling bad about the ones where it doesn't.

[turtledragonfly]

> Better, I don't feel guilty about the stuff I don't finish.

I think this is key, and demonstrates the real personal growth, which is more valuable than being able to finish things per-se.

It's the old saw: "what's the hardest thing? To know oneself."

There's a lot of eagerness to jump on bandwagons and do whatever the motivational speakers recommend, but you're not going to find the answers specific to you until you look inside yourself.

Anyway, in short: I agree (:

I'd also add: the reasons and mindset can change not just from project to project, but from day to day as well. Very context-dependent (at least in my experience).

[thehappyfellow]

So you’re saying in order to finish projects I just need to learn how to be honest and clear with myself? Seems like a reduction to a harder problem :)

Joking aside, I came to believe that various form of procrastination are a response to pursuing wrong or unclear goals - even when I don’t state them clearly, my brain still somehow knows that I’m not aligned with what my goals should be. Good job, brain!

[munificent]

> Seems like a reduction to a harder problem :)

Yes, but there may be other positive benefits to solving it as well. :)

[0x008]

For me this sounds a lot like a distinction between being intrinsically motivated (“because it is fun for me”) and extrinsic motivation (“I want to achieve something in the outside world”)