Maybe Shiny Objects Aren’t *Always* Shiny

This is kind of a personal one, so bear with me.

I’m working through setting up the bones of my blog posts on my WA affiliate site, to move the kitty posts over. (Heh, not like “scratching” posts, but that was unintended and made me chuckle.) By “bones,” I mean each title, and the parts of each post in the series that are the same, including the link back to WA etc. I will go in and add the meat to each one later.

I had just saved the bones of the second to the last post tonight, when a tiny little sadness hit me, because I am just about at the end of this particular task. This may make zero sense to you, but it makes complete sense to me.

Long story short: I moved around my entire childhood, sometimes abruptly and unexpectedly, often leaving behind items that were seemingly important to my young self. At one point in my younger adult life, I started to notice the potential I was showing for hoarding—with things so silly as a bottle of shampoo, for example. The shampoo would get close to the end and I couldn’t let it go; I would buy a new bottle but still hang on to the remnants of the other one, I guess “just in case” I needed it. I’m fortunate that I detected this and was able to retrain my brain to understand that when the shampoo runs out, I can buy a new bottle and let the old one go, and it will be okay. That is just one small example, but it was actually a big step for me in beginning to heal that part of myself.

I have long wondered if this is part of the tendency I have to start several things and not finish them (aside from just the fact that I am curious about so many things, and I have an insatiable thirst for learning). But of course it is.

I have long had difficulty seeing things through to completion, and that no doubt stems from “losing things” so frequently throughout my young life.

But I also understand how that keeps me stuck, and keeps me from truly forging ahead and making progress that matters. Keeps me from building something real for myself, something that I can fall back on without ever having to rely on another person. To be clear, I am blessed to have really good people in my life—but it is of great importance to me not to be a burden to anyone.

I digress (typical), but back to the completion of the task at hand—I have noted the twinge of sadness at this portion of my tasks coming to a close, and I am converting that to excitement because it is paving the way for the next steps of continuing to focus on this aspect of what I am building for myself.

I just felt like adding my own personal little thoughts about the “shiny object” syndrome, and how we all might come to it in different ways or for different reasons. The very valid point, though, is that if we are caught up with shiny objects, or always chasing the new thing or the fresh start, then we are not truly giving a chance to what is right in front of us to build upon, which diminishes our chance for success.

Find a thing, focus on it, and give it a solid chance. See it through. "Polish the diamond," if you will.

Good night. :)