Finishing Projects

When it comes to finishing projects, there two end-of-spectrum problems connected to it:

1. Inability to finish a project.
2. Compulsion to finish a project

I once read that overachievers become what they are because in their childhood they got a tremendous positive response to something they had accomplished. And as a result, they got addicted to this rush of positive emotions associated with the end of a project, an accomplishment.

Sounds very plausible to me.

I have a friend who is an overachiever. She is doing great with her career. Her social life is wonderful. Her networking abilities are outstanding. It's hard to imaging all the things she manage to fit into her week. She finishes all her projects.

She also can't help herself but finish what she shouldn't be finishing -- like a box of chocolate éclairs. She feels compulsion to finish whatever she starts.

I, on the other hand, have really hard time finishing projects, which is considered to be typical for people with ADD. However, I absolutely refuse to believe that a child -- any child -- could be born with the "unfinished project" syndrome. It's obviously a learned behavior.

I wish I knew how I picked that one up. But mostly I wish I knew how to get rid of it.