Unfinished Projects, Unfinished Stories: Embracing the Unwritten

Hot take: it’s okay not to finish what you started.

Sometimes you have to pivot.

I think there’s beauty in the unknown, the unfinished projects, and the stories that are still being written.

I often joke that the one constant thing in my life has been my career. I am grateful for my job, but I also recognize that because I place so much emphasis on the one thing that I feel good at, I often start and stop other things. This is not to say that I am not good at different things; it’s just that I lose motivation and feel bad about not finishing what I started.

Recently, I thought, well, what if unfinished is my path? Hear me out. What if I am supposed to have all of these ideas and projects that I work on at this time, but I don’t finish them until a year or two or three years later because there is a lot of learning I need to do during the in-between?

Below, I offer a few examples of times when you may have felt like a chapter in your life was left unfinished.

Maybe you’re searching for closure from a relationship, intimate or otherwise, but you’re not getting it. Maybe you aren’t supposed to. Perhaps you are supposed to learn something from that relationship. You want to talk to this person and figure out where things took a turn for the worse and why, but honestly, you may be better off not knowing. Sometimes, when relationships don’t work out, there is a lesson that is helpful for you in the future. You may not see that right now, but your future self will be glad the relationship did not work out.

You thought you crushed a job interview, and you knew you would get a call back saying that you’ve been hired. However, that didn’t happen for you. You never got a callback, and when you followed up, you found out another person filled the position. Receiving this news hurt you, and your emotions suffered. You want to find out why you didn’t get the job, but sometimes it is better not knowing and searching for answers in places that aren’t for you. Maybe that job wasn’t for you, and this job interview was preparing you for a more significant position. You may not see that now, but you will. Your future will be better because you left that chapter unwritten.

You started a business, and then somewhere down the line, the company did not continue. This type of unfinished project could be because of a myriad of things. Maybe you came up with a new idea, or you have to pivot because of recent technological changes. Take a step back and learn from this. Adjust your thought process so that you can develop new ideas.

When we embrace the unwritten, we discover the beauty in the incomplete, the potential in the unfinished. Unfinished projects and stories are not failures; they are canvases awaiting new brush strokes and new ideas. When we appreciate unfinished work, we appreciate the process, find solace in the journey, and understand that sometimes, the best stories are the ones we leave open-ended.

Cheers to endless possibilities.