The Joy of Completion

Pictures from a summer trip to Montana. Trip to Holland LO by Andrew, Eric and Jean. Jean on Holland LO

This picture of me was taken about 20 years ago, and it’s been a long time since I’ve gone hiking. But I feel as elated right now as I did that day.

I just spent three days finishing a video editing project that I’ve been putting off for the last six months. There was no external pressure to finish it, but it’s been on my To Do list for so long that it was starting to nag at me. And I was ready to do something that was well-defined and that I already knew how to do. So I not only have a great sense of accomplishment and relief, I also had a nice vacation from being over my head and having to learn something new for almost every step I take.

Learning new things is very important to me, and that sometimes means focusing on taking one step at a time. It sometimes means temporarily giving up the urge toward closure. So it was a real treat to work on a project that was big enough to be meaningful and yet one that I could actually complete and declare finished. I hadn’t realized how much I missed that feeling.