RESOLUTIONS: Thoughts on Finishing

For anyone who has set pen to paper or fingers to keyboard expressing themselves, a certain psychological challenge emerges – finishing; having it be good enough; the willingness to offer it up to readers for enjoyment or scrutiny. Many folks have something they have written filed away somewhere that may never be shared with others.

It occurs that the challenge of finishing something isn’t just relegated to the works of writers. We are all constantly embarked on projects that ultimately require completion and, for many, completing or finishing something is difficult. Do you have a project looming over you that seems impossible to bring to closure?

What makes it so difficult, at times, to finish something? What makes us continually see our work as not good enough; as requiring tweaks and changes; as continually a “work in progress”? Knowledge about the human brain offers thoughts. It’s the brain’s right hemisphere that’s associated with our “big picture” thinking. Artistic, creative, intuitive instincts emerge from that brain center. With big picture thinking we look at a project as “what if I move this over here…or combine those two things…or what if I reverse the order…or get rid of this and add this… It doesn’t process things in an orderly, step by step manner, that is more the style of the brain’s left hemisphere. Working more from the right side of the brain we see life more like a jig saw puzzle. Especially if a person is stressed or, by nature, tends to favor the strategies of that brain center, moving forward to completion of a piece of writing or other project may be challenged by how their brain is seeing the world. Something can never be felt as ultimately completed because other possibilities loom continuously. It may be harder to bring something to a conclusion; to see and feel something as finished.

Beyond how the brain ‘sees’ what we are working on, there are numerous emotions that may emerge when declaring something as finished, and exhilaration may not be the only one. The emotion of fear can overcome us. Fear is actually an electrical and chemical ‘firestorm’ of activity in our brains. It can stop us from completing something. If we declare a manuscript or something other as completed, we are exposing ourselves to scrutiny and possibly criticism by ourselves or the world. It’s hard to ‘put oneself out there’ for judgement, and fear is often the result. If we can’t handle the discomfort of fear it may dissuade us from finishing something.

So, our comfortable ability to complete a writing project or other endeavor, to finish something, involves our brains, both how they see the world and our ability to manage the inevitable electrical/chemical firestorm of emotions that may emerge. A pathway to being less a victim of jig saw puzzle thinking and of rising fear is a quieter, calmer brain.

We live in an era of more awareness and comfort with practices that slow and quiet our brain activity. We’ve all heard of mindfulness meditation, concentration exercises, even focused breathing exercises as beneficial. Training and guidance abound from local classes to YouTube. Learning to slow and quiet our brain activity can provide a benefit of helping us to bring overwhelming projects to a conclusion and to experience less of the discomfort of declaring something finished.

When our thoughts are jumping wildly from here to there in that jig saw puzzle manner, seeing endless possibilities for a project, it’s hard to bring it to a conclusion. Quieting our brains will better discipline out of control thinking. A quieter brain can enable us to more clearly see a pathway through a project to the end.

When we feel we cannot tolerate the fear that emerges upon declaring something finished we must remember that fear is a certain firestorm of electrical and chemical activity in our brains. By quieting our brains, we can diminish that firestorm. We can, more mechanically, bring down levels of fear and other emotions.

So, if you have that manuscript or other project you can’t seem to finish, look beyond ‘trying harder’ or feeling that frustration with yourself will push you forward. Remember, how your brain is functioning may be getting in your way.

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The author spent many years teaching and guiding people in understanding their brain’s role in why they function the way they do and in ways of better managing brain functioning in order to improve their lives.