No B.S Friday: It’s a little dated now, but I think they were on to something.
“You can know a man by the number of unfinished projects in his shed.”
I think this was one of my dad’s mates or something. Or my dad. I can’t quite remember.
And it took a long time before I got what this was about.
And maybe it doesn’t make as much sense as it used to. How many of us even have back sheds these days? Convert that mofo into a granny flat and make some coin grandpa.
But back in the day, everyone had sheds. And it was where the old fellahs used to go out and tinker with their ‘projects’. Doing up the car. Repairing the lawn-mower. Knocking up a hobby-horse for the kids.
But there were two types of people. There where the people who had a shed full of half-finished projects. Dozens of things on the go at once.
Or probably more accurately, one thing on the go, and eleven things that were on the go, and then stopped being on the go before they were finished, and were now just going nowhere.
Now what I reckon my dad would say about that is that the projects never survived the excitement phase.
It’s easy to get excited and launch into a project. It’s all so fresh and new and it’s fun to dream into the possibilities.
But while it’s easy to start, it’s much harder to execute and deliver. There’s always going to be some road-block that comes up, and it’s at that point that you’ve got to move from excitement phase into the ‘just getting it done’ phase.
And so what I think you see in a person who only has one project on the go at any one time, and nothing but fully-completed projects on his back lawn – is someone who is able to be disciplined with themselves. It’s someone who can maintain focus and move through things when they get difficult.
That’s obvious.
But the hidden discipline is saying no to projects you don’t think you’re probably going to get around to. It’s about having a clear idea of what your resources are, and then not over-extending yourself.
And so what we’re talking about here is someone who is disciplined, realistic and methodical.
And if they’re methodical with the projects in their shed, then their methodical with everything in life.
And their relationships are probably strong because they know what they have time for.
And they’re probably relatively wealthy, because they’ve been able to get a good financial game plan together and stick with it.
And they’re relatively happy, because they get stuff done, and don’t have mental clutter hanging over their heads.
And in that way, you can know a man by the number of unfinished projects he has in his shed.
I don’t know what the modern equivalent is. You can know a man or woman by the number of open tabs on their browser?
Something like that.
But the way you hit your projects is the way you hit everything.
I’m sure of that.
JG.
Graham says
I used to have a LOT f projects when I was young. Now I have 1 or 2 and they get finished at a pace I am sometimes not all that happy with but they get done.
What does that make me? Confused or committed?