From Start to... What WAS that Word?

I am an exceptional project launcher. Really. It’s in my DNA and has been identified by the experts as one of my five key strengths*. Their prettier term for my penchant to get something started is “activator.” I like it. And I like getting things started even more.

In business, it means you want me spear-heading that project you just can’t get off the ground or one that’s stuck in the morass going no where. I’m like human jumper cables – I don’t care how dead in the water it may seem to be, I can get that project running again.

Tee hee.

Then just color me gone.

Whatever it is that makes me so good at the ramp up makes me really sucky, (sucky being a complicated, technical term) at finishing. Ew. Details. Ew. Completion. Borrrring.

So this year, knowing what I know about myself, I am going to crawl outside my comfort zone and start developing my completer muscle. There must be one. And I must have one, somewhere. Mine’s just so undeveloped I can’t recognize it, kind of like my triceps before I started messing with three pound weights and wall push-ups. After a couple of weeks, lo and behold, I had some! Cool!

Sometimes developing a new skill means shelving an old and familiar one. Which is why, when I was in Michaels Arts and Crafts today, one of my all-time favorite places, I did not fill my cart with all the wondermous scrapbooking paraphernalia strewn throughout the sales aisles veritably screaming: 80% off.

See, I’m not a scrapbooker. But I love the idea of it, and I really love the idea of “STARTING” a scrapbook. Trust me when I tell you the closets, shelves, cupboards, and cabinets of my homes do not need one more unfinished project. I have needlepoint, calligraphy, cross-stitch, watercolor paints sets and other hobby beginnings galore.

They keep company with all the books opened, begun, and not read; half-hemmed garments, and an ironing basket, which is really just a way station between the hanger and the closest charity's drop-off bin.

No, I don’t need another “To-do” in 2012, what I need is a whole bunch of “To-dones.”
*Now, Discover Your Strengths is a self-help book written by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.