Finished is better than unfinished, but unfinished is better than not having the fortitude to begin at all.
That is something we should never lose sight of. We need to remember to contently welcome long periods of unfinished, because they are better than having nothing to do at all.
It seems we like to operate on two speeds. All steam ahead, with all the excitement and emotions it brings, or full stop, with all the regret and I told you so’s it brings. But there has to be a way to remain faithful but incomplete. To not give up what we are working on without quitting.
Quitting sucks.
I’ve been there many times.
It offers temporary solace. It gives you a moment to get a drink, catch up on some television, sleep in a bit and take a deep breath of comfort. Really soak it up. Expand those lungs. Breathe it all in, because you can’t stay there. That very same air will eventually become toxic and suffocating.
You were not built for quitting. You were not made for comfort. You were born and built to kick some serious ass. Man, woman, or child. Young or old. Able and disabled. Hanging on the cross or weeping at the foot it. No matter. No matter what your suffering, your past mistakes, your regrets, or your fears, you are here to make an impact. Kick ass. Take names.
So get a notepad and a pen and start working in the unfinished.
That feeling that there is something to do. That you are forgetting something important. That feeling is never going away. It may disappear for a while if you succeed or you quit, but soon it will return because it is there to drive you forward. It is there to remind you that there are no days of the week, there are only days of your life. You were not born to be a slave to the alarm clock and obey the calendar. You are far more powerful than that.
You have power beyond your wildest imagination. Of course you cannot fly, become invisible, or cut through steel with your eyes. But you are powerful. You are a human being, with a mind that creates, and a body that delivers. Your dreams are not silly. Your dreams should not be locked away. They need to come to the surface.
Keep them at the surface and learn to accept being unfinished. Learn to accept being in ruts, or as Seth Godin sees it, being in the dip.
Dreams have a cost. They cost you your life. Just ask Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi sometime. But don’t go yet, you have unfinished business here. You have a world you need to impact. You have dreams you have not realized. Big dreams and little dreams. They are all important. You are very important.
Try your hardest to plan and finish. You certainly can, but never quit. Quitting is for the ordinary and you’re extraordinary.
Your life is unfinished. It is meant to be that way.
Finished things have a way to be forgotten anyway.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Milivoj Kuhor via unsplash.com
