I’m so NOT a “completer-finisher”…or am I…?

I was looking through the list of posts that I have part-written over the past year and I’ve realised I need to get better at finishing posts.

I currently have 15 un-finished posts (16 if I don’t post this one too!! 🙂 );

There are the things I’ve had ideas for and not completed and then the moment has passed, (like that “Christmas ideas” post I started in November)

There are things that I did right at the beginning of my blogging life and then decided it wasn’t good enough, yet can’t quite bring myself to delete it (like that Granny Square tutorial I wrote)

 

There are also several “how-to” type tutorials which I haven’t taken the pictures for yet, or where I have taken them they are SOMEWHERE in my “pictures” folder (I’ve discovered that pictures of knitting look very similar without the context and text!)

It got me to thinking that I’m really not good at completing anything!

sheldon

The same is true of my knitting and crochet.  I have an awful lot of WIP’s that I’ve started and not finished.  I also have a lot of yarn that I’ve bought with a specific project in mind, only to get distracted by something else more SHINY, more NEW and more PRETTY!

I have recently been better at being a “monogamous” knitter or crocheter but really, that just means that I get distracted by my other hobbies…lately drawing has been taking up my time more than crochet…although I am loving the Crochet Between the Lines shawl that I’m working on slowly too.

Now here comes a boring psychology bit.  In 1981, Meredith Belbin defined a number of “team-roles” required to make a team work effectively together.  He determined that to make an effective team, you needed people who have the following traits:

  • Plant
    • Creative, unorthodox generators of ideas. Problem solvers
  • Resource Investigator
    • Great networker who will take the ideas generated by Plants and find the people to make them happen
  • Co-ordinator
    • Good at leading a team and stepping back to see the big picture. They will clarify decisions and help everyone else focus on their tasks
  • Shaper
    • Task-focused and driven by energy and the need to achieve. They provide the drive to ensure that the team does not lose focus or momentum.
  • Monitor Evaluator
    • Fair and logical observers who are good at detaching themselves from bias. They will often see all available options and come to a decision slowly and analytically
  • Teamworker
    • Good listeners and diplomats, and will smooth over conflicts to keep the team running.
  • Implementer
    • Takes the suggestions and ideas and turns them into action. They are efficient and self-disciplined, and can always be relied on to deliver on time.
  • Completer Finisher
    • a perfectionist who will often go the extra mile to make sure everything is “just right,”. Will check that delivery can be trusted, checking and double checking.
  • Specialist
    • Passionate about learning in their own particular field. Likely to be a fountain of knowledge and will enjoy imparting this knowledge to others.

People don’t always occupy just one role and I do recognise other parts of myself in the other role descriptions.  However, several years ago, I remember completing a questionnaire that identified me as definitely NOT a “Completer-Finisher”.  That has stuck with me!

A first glance at the multiple WIP’s and unfinished posts, I’m inclined to agree.

However, I’m actually starting to wonder if it’s BECAUSE I’m a completer-finisher that I haven’t finished?! 🙂

Wikipedia has the full description of “Completer-Finisher” as follows:

The Completer Finisher is a perfectionist and will often go the extra mile to make sure everything is “just right,” and the things he or she delivers can be trusted to have been double-checked and then checked again. The Completer Finisher has a strong inward sense of the need for accuracy, and sets his or her own high standards rather than working on the encouragement of others. They may frustrate their teammates by worrying excessively about minor details and by refusing to delegate tasks that they do not trust anyone else to perform.

It’s true that:

  • I couldn’t publish the Christmas post because I didn’t have time to take the pictures, and I couldn’t put a post like that out there without some nice pictures to tempt people.
  • Those early posts need a lot of work to make them right and ready to publish
  • The tutorials need the “right pictures” taking and the steps checking through to make sure they work…
  • Some of those WIP’s just aren’t “turning out” like I imagined and so I’ve lost interest, they are not all that perfect….

GAH!

I feel a bit like Jekyll and Hyde sometimes, there is a part of me that just can’t be bothered to do the details…and a part of me that won’t let me post without doing the detail…!

🙂 🙂

giphy

Well that’s my psycho-analysis session over for today! hahaha! 🙂

Anyone else find themselves fighting with their inner perfectionist?

Jo

x

23 Responses

  1. M-R

    You are singing my song ! (Alas …)
    Reading that break-down of ““team-roles” required to make a team work effectively” is hideous. To my horror I see it’s from 1981, when I was in the workforce: thank all the gods I never came across it, that’s all I can say. 🙂
    Same same with WIPs. Sighh …

  2. Mrs Craft

    The inner perfectionist has been my downfall so many times! I used to find it so hard to delegate tasks in my day job. Your unfinished posts all sound fab, I hope you can get them published one at a time since you’re halfway there already.

  3. I can relate with this post SO MUCH! If I could stick to a project and just see it through it would be amazing! If it helps any….your posts are Beautifully written and photographed. Your perfectionism makes for great blog posts! Keep up the good work!

  4. Though I am more a co-ordinator, I also have my bodies in the cupboard. A lot of ideas that never took flight or that did not work out (yet) like I imagined them. They come back to haunt me from time to time. But I believe that if the time is right, they will sore and make a great blogpost. Just give yourself some time – your’s will do and it helps to have half finished stuff in the pipeline in case you need to draw something out fast 😉

  5. I love this post. I live with a plant. He has no concept of any of the other people on the team. Hence in our world I have to be all those other people, sigh. Is totally exhausting to me because I really just like to do the organizing prioritizing and yes finishing – on time! I’d love to see your resources and people and get a project done. Also totally loved your graphics for this post. Give yourself more credit you put out a lot and all those work in progress our resources for you for a time when your creativity allows you to finish them.

  6. We had to do one of those assessments at work a few years ago, and I came out almost entirely completer finisher!
    So I think you’re on to something, because I have lots of unfinished drafts and WIPs lying around as well. They just won’t line up with the ideas I see in my mind, how rude :p

  7. Robyn

    I was scrolling through Pinterest and found your blog. Very interesting.
    I can say that I am a perfectionist. I have 20 years of wips to prove it. If it does not look right or feel right, it’s discarded.
    Yep. 2 bedrooms of yarn, wips, etc. Yarn has multiplied, invading the lounge room. Aahh.

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