In January, I decided to join a group of bloggers in a project called 12 Changes. My first month was awesome- I went vegetarian (and stayed more or less that way for nearly 6 weeks), became a MUCH healthier eater, started to think more consciously about my fitness, and overall had a more positive outlook on the parts of my life that I wanted to improve.
Slowly in my second and third months, I stopped thinking about my project. I was feeling motivated at the beginning of each month to take on a new goal, but within the first week I would entirely stop caring about accomplishing it. Maybe I took too much on at the same time; with work, school, regularly blogging & other various things, it became really difficult to think about this extra project that required quite a bit of time and conscious thought.
I persisted, though. In March and April I set myself up with yet another goal, and both times I didn’t even care to try and achieve it after writing down my objectives. It was in the middle of April, when I realized how much I was failing at another goal in my 12 Changes project, that I realized I just wasn’t dedicating any kind of thought to this project anymore. On paper, it sounded awesome- but in reality? I wasn’t following through with ANY of my challenges.
The truth is, even though I’m a huge procrastinator, I’m also extremely ambitious. I constantly convince myself that I can take on yet another thing, and another, and then another, until finally I realize I probably shouldn’t have agreed to all these projects. I mean, I currently have a semi-full time paying job and I’m now doing two part-time NON paying jobs. I try and blog 5 days a week. I have a 23 Before 23 list of goals with a looming deadline, a 101 in 1,001 list of goals with a deadline a little further away, and a ton of other commitments that take up my time.
I’ve got all these plans, but having too many is starting to get to me. It’s never easy to admit that you’re giving up on something, but I know that by finally deciding this project isn’t for me I’ll be able to focus my time into the things that I’m actually feeling good about.
So today, I’m shutting down my 12 Changes. It was fun while it lasted, but truthfully it was one thing too much for me.
That being said, I’m excited to play catch-up with all the other things I’ve got going on. Like I mentioned last week I really want to take advantage of this summer, and I just don’t want to stress myself out with yet another deadline.
I plan on writing an update on the other things I’ve got going on later this week, just to get myself back on track. The whole accumulation of TOO MUCH these last few weeks has meant that the things I actually managed to work on this year haven’t been going very well. I’m excited to re-focus my attention on the projects that I still feel passionate about, and see where that takes me for the next few months!
Have you ever given up on a project, or felt like you took on too much?
