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Day off on the long road

The Mt. Hope Scrolls

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Well, I got to the break. It was time to stop. This year one of my secret projects had a scheduled break, which is a good thing. Just about every project needs a break to regroup and not burnout. Even the hardest projects give you a rest day. I'm happy that it finally came.
I'm usually a "decide what you want, write it down, make a plan, and work on it every single day" type of guy. Those little steps every day make even the most daunting tasks move along. That's all well and good, but even big tasks like running a marathon have rest days in the training schedule. I'm not doing something as big as marathon training, but I do have to take a break. It came at the perfect time. The two days off were perfect. I came up with some ideas on how to re-think my secret project. Just a little step back allowed me to see the forest. Those trees were in the way and causing the project to slow to a crawl and the stress level to speed up to a sprint.
This little re-evaluation was just the thing. Instead of quitting, I can look at the project in a new light and keep going. Some of my friends will jump into a project and seemingly work until they drop. After a little bit of exhaustion and setbacks, they suffer and have plans that slow to a crawl. What's worse than killing yourself and still not completing a big project?
Secret projects need to have little steps to keep the momentum. The most important thing for me is to make some progress. A small, completed step is better than a lot of frustrating steps that are leading me further away from the completion of the project. That's why this break has been so much fun. I got some time off, and now I'm excited about starting again. I can even see that I have made some progress over the last month.
Progress is the thing! It seems like I'm getting closer, and the steps are getting more comfortable. The good thing is this is not a crazy project like marathon training. In fact, this may be much shorter than initially planned. This break has let me figure a way to shorten some of the steps. That's a great thing, Progress and a smaller number of steps.
If you think this is a lot of braggadocios, don't worry, I have quit one of my secret projects. This should be the last column on private projects, new year's resolutions, and those kinds of things for this year. You've probably quit some of your steps to those things you had planned for this year.
This break has given me a new sense of accomplishment, and it has allowed new to get rid of a project that was just in the way. "If at first, you don't succeed, quit. No use being a fool about it."