There’s one personality flaw I have that causes me a little stress. For reasons I won’t dive into, I have something of an aversion to finishing things. It’s not that I don’t want to finish; it’s that I don’t want to press on to the finish once I lose interest. My problem is with the persistence, not the completion.
Since I’ve learned to keep this bad habit limited to things of lesser importance, it doesn’t really cause me anxiety in day-to-day life. Occasionally, though, I look around my environment and see several things begun but not finished. Then I feel a bit jangled.
Every now and then, I spend a day just finishing things. I wander from room to room and find some abandoned project or chore and I finish it. Again, nothing really important is accomplished. It only serves to keep down the noise of the unfinished clutter.
Today I finished a small painting project; a recycling project; two abandoned piles of swept-up animal fur; folding the last load of yesterday’s laundry, and sorting through a week’s worth of mail.
Maybe I’m not finished finishing yet. Maybe I’ll finish even more before I’m finished. Bu eventually I’ll lose interest and stop finishing before I’m through. Then it will be all over, but not all done.