Clarity And Completion
Whatever kind of work you do, completion is essential, not just for your success, but also for your sanity.
From being getting noticed to getting paid, completing the projects you undertake sends the message that you are trustworthy and reliable, the kind of person who delivers, who gets things done.
1. Completion Validates Your Competence
All of us struggle, from time to time, with feeling inadequate, as if we lack the skills or experience needed to stand out, get noticed, or stay in demand. The “imposter syndrome” is the name we use to describe this fear of being “found out,” the feeling we are just faking it. Every successful creative and artist I know has struggled with this – it’s a universal dilemma.
We can seek validation in all kinds of ways, from likes on Facebook and Instagram, to try and combat the imposter syndrome, but nothing really beats completing a big, important project (then another and another). This momentum won’t quell the demons forever, but it will shut them up long enough to let love and inspiration speak to us and remind us of how much we are already able to accomplish.
2. Completion Clarifies Your Relationships
This is a big one. Every major project I’ve ever completed, from courses of study, booking major music gigs, putting on a photo exhibit or publishing my first book has been a chance to rethink relationships. Some folks behave fine; sending in encouragement, getting the word out of just being good about it all. Others go strangely quiet, they can’t seem to offer an unqualified word of congratulations, or for some reason refuse to promote or even talk about your work. Then, others surprise you, come out of the woodwork so to speak, to offer thanks, show their gratitude or even shout from the rooftops the merit of your achievements.
There’s something about completion that teases out people’s real feelings about you and brings them to the surface. It reminds us of the people in our lives who think well of us and our work. And, it also highlights those who might possibly be dragging us down, holding us back, or trying to keep us in a box.
3. Completion Affirms Your Place In The Universe
We all like to dream. If we are disciplined and organised, those dreams might even be organised into a plan or mission we set ourselves, based on our place in the universe. Nothing affirms that sense of mission better than completion. That’s why completion figures in the closing thoughts of No Missing Tools.
“We have an unprecedented freedom to move from complaining to completion. There are many things to love about creative work, from the freedom to express ourselves to the wonderful people we bring into our lives. But, if there is one thing we perhaps need to learn to love above everything else, it is the feeling of completion.
Completion is not just about making something, delivering something, or even selling and shipping something. Completion is connected to the bigger process of fulfilling your mission, rounding out the circle that begins with your motivations and travels through your inspiration to your place in the world and challenging that place.
Completion confirms your place in this universe is, as much as it is possible, the one you have chosen and the one you are meant to inhabit.”
No Missing Tools: Creativity In An Age Of Abundance is available now. You can pick up a copy a paperback copy on Amazon for U$11.52 (also available in Amazon UK or Amazon EU), or order the Kindle version for U$6.79 (also available on all the global Kindle stores, check your local price), if prefer and there’s even a digital multipack available for U$10 through GumRoad that includes the pdf, mobi and epub versions (use the code “abundance” for a 25% discount till the end of the month on this version). Finally, there is a numbered, limited edition, hardcover version, printed in Japan available for U$65 direct from my studio in Tokyo.
