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!
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…!
🙂 🙂
Well that’s my psycho-analysis session over for today! hahaha! 🙂
Anyone else find themselves fighting with their inner perfectionist?
Jo
x
