We are now well into September, and our routines are, if not settled, then nearly so. Do you still find you’re unable to take those small steps towards achieving your goals? Maybe you just don’t feel like you have the energy to get started after a long day, and need to use your weekends to recuperate. What if you’ve already taken the time to look at and re-evaluate the problem and what you need to fix to keep moving forward and you still can’t see your way forward?
Take a closer look at the situation, the project, and the overall outcome you are hoping for. What is it about the projject that keeps needing to be fixed? Are you tired of it? Is this the project that is going to give you the outcome you desire? Is it worth your time to continue on it? What is it you are really protesting? Is it a wrong step, or would a different project be better for you and get you to your desired outcome?
I encountered this situation this past week. I’ve been working on a project for the last year. Several times I’ve thought I was well on my way to completion and then I’d get stuck. I’d look back at it, figure out where I went wrong, go back to that point and start fresh, only to get stuck again. This happened several times. It got to the point where I dreaded going back to it. and yet I felt the pressure to continue, to finish, because I don’t believe in abandonning projects just becasue it isn’t working out once or twice. But after a year of struggling, I started paying attention to what my mind and body were protesting. The real protest was that this was not the right project for me. I finally decided to set that project aside for now or indefinitely and to work on a new project. I don’t quite know what that will be, but I’m looking forward to it.
Once I made that decision, I felt relief and joy. I knew I’d listened to myself and know what is right for me. And now, for the first time in a few years, I am excited to be working on a new project. It is in the same field and with the goal of the same end result, it is just a different way of getting there.
What is really stopping you from moving forward?
Thanks for sharing your recognition that the project was simply not the right one for you at this point in time, Sherry. I’ve been struggling with the same head-banging problem over a short story I wanted to submit to the Strange Bedfellows anthology. Just last week I came to the same realization you have, that it wasn’t the right project for the time being. But I was feeling SO GUILTY for even temporarily giving up. After reading your post, I now feel like I can give myself permission to let go of that guilt. Congrats on making the first cut with your story submission to Strange Bedfellows, by the way!
Thank you so much Celeste! It is a difficult process, to know when leaving a project is the right move and when it is giving up. I believe you made the right decision. And it isn’t like you’ve given up on writing, or maybe even submitting to Strange Bedfellows. You’ll just be writing and submitting other stories. And you’re a terrific writer Celeste, so I have no doubt you will have much more amazing success when you write what you want to write, not what you “should” write.