“Well begun is half done,” Aristotle said. And Aristotle, as we all know, was a very smart man. This quote by Aristotle, however, presents only one part of the picture, and the picture is quite incomplete without the other half, which is as important as the first half. This other half can be summarised with Shakespeare’s line, “All’s well that ends well”.
In my discussions with friends and peers, I often come across instances where someone starts writing something, and then, somewhere in the middle, they lose interest and give up. I myself have done that many times. An idea strikes me. I sit down on my computer in right earnest, and then, half way through, I feel that the idea was not as exciting as it initially seemed. I lose all interest in completing what I had started, and the piece remains unfinished forever.
Does that ever happen to you?
If you are anything like me, you must have had something like that happen to you too.
Lately, however, I have changed my approach. When I start writing something, I make sure that I take it to it’s logical conclusion. Sometimes, I am not satisfied with the end result, but I always have the option of improving it later.
However well you begun something, it will not mean much if you don’t end it well, or do not end it at all. On the other hand, if you manage to finish something with flair, there is a very good chance that people will forget, or ignore, how you had begun. So, focusing on the endings is just as important as focusing on the beginnings.
Finishing what you begin is important as it makes you more productive. If you leave your pieces unfinished, you are, in turn, letting many of your ideas go waste. Starting things, and not completing them, leads to a feeling of dissatisfaction that can accumulate over a period of time, and eventually result in the much feared writer’s block. On the other hand, if you get into the habit of finishing everything you start, you become confident that once you sit down to write, you will get up only when you have got something to post on your blog, or something to send to the editor, whichever the case may be.
Sometimes, it is mere laziness, that stops us from finishing things. We might find any excuse for not completing what we started, but the fact is that we are not willing to do that extra work that is required to complete our piece. By making a habit of completing most – if not all – things we start with, we can get into the habit of working just a little bit extra and, as a result, produce excellent work. Would you not want that?
Image courtesy: cobrasoft from sxc.hu
Leave a Reply