When considering whether or not you should take on all the work and dedication to start and finish a personal project that you'll show off to the world and be proud of, imagine yourself doing it when you absolutely don't want to.
I mean the days and weekends when you're bored with it and would rather be doing other things, imagine yourself still working on it - fixing it, refactoring it, testing it and tweaking it. Those times when you want to work on new and exciting ideas you just had instead, but still need to finish what you had already started.
Imagine digging tunnels with a junky shovel or banging day after day after day on a rock wall with a dull light weight hammer. Imagine having to think and think about your project day after day, only to have it fall apart, waiting for you to try again. Will you do it?
If you can truly see yourself working on this project during those bleakest of times, you may actually have a chance at really finishing it. Not just getting it to the point of "well it's good enough" because you're bored of it, but a finished project that someone else who's an expert in your field would say "wow that looks great, and I can tell you worked hard on it!"
It's 100% okay to say no at the beginning. To imagine that you won't want to work on it during the lean times. It's better to know that at the start than in the middle when you've already spent so much time on it.
Be completely honest with yourself and don't feel like you have to do something because "all the cool kids are doing it" It's likely most of them are in fact NOT doing it, but merely starting then trailing off.
Remember that nothing worth doing is easy. Remember how you feel when viewing someone else's personal project and thinking about all the time and effort they put into it. You're not alone if you do the same. It's just how it gets done.
This is the same for everyone, the smarter and faster people had to work hard to get there. People seem to think that there's this natural ability the gifted have to accomplish so much in so little time, but you never hear about the days and weeks of practice and self-paced learning that had to come before it.
Do a few of these and they will get easier and easier to finish - really finish.
Top comments (3)
I like to plan projects out, very loosely, using Trello. If I start the project then it’s easy to flesh it out and start keeping track of what I need to do and what I’ve achieved. Sometimes the latter really helps with motivation and the former can help you prioritise quick wins to help you make tangible progress or to tick of little things that might not be very important but give you sense of achievement.
For projects I don’t start, it’s a nice reference point for what might be involved in something new. Is it worth the effort? Is there something I haven’t taken into consideration?
I have failed many side projects. For some of them, it took years to realise it was a mistake to have ever started even though I appreciated what was learned from them. I feel like I could only learn to get better at these decisions from experience and I haven't found a good mental model to apply to make better decisions very early on. I like how you put it though. Trying a thought experiment of how you would think of a project in the future in various scenarios and not only if it's going well. I will use that. Thank you.
You describe what I feel when making my idea for a product I'd like to sell someday. There are times where it isn't great. But it is much better than before, because of two important things.