I've always been creative, love to plan, dream, implement, then get bored once things are going. And so things that I would dream about would fizzle out and I would feel like a failure. A new dream or idea would come, and I'd think, plan, implement, carry it out, get bored, fizzle, feel like a failure again.
These last few years I've discovered more people like myself. I've even had people encourage me to find jobs that rely on me starting things up and getting them running well. A couple years ago, I discovered that there is a term for this - it's called being A Starter.
Being a Starter does not mean that you don't have the ability to finish things, rather, it's that you start things so that the "Worker Bees," who enjoy maintaining well running things, can take over. Being a Starter is about knowing when the starting stops and letting go.
What does that mean for me now? I'm entertaining some ideas about becoming a small office organizer. I'd go in, assess the office, help to get them running and organized, and then when it's like a well oiled machine, move on to the next office. Or something like that, that leans on my natural giftings.
It's hard to be a Starter though, in a culture that values the every day routines, the consistent work, the finishers. It may be akin to being a seed planter in Christianity - you sow, but don't reap, therefore your "success" is less measurable. I was taught that if you start something, you finish it. While that may be true for some things, it isn't true, true, to the way I work at projects. It's not that I can't finish something, but there are some things that I need to be able to let go and let others take over.
After being clearer on this Starter thing (I'm still learning to lean into it), I am more able to let go of things and not feel like I failed. On the other hand, when a new dream or idea starts, I can better manage how I go about it, knowing that this may not be something that I do for more than a year or two.
Some things that I'm recently letting go are:
These last few years I've discovered more people like myself. I've even had people encourage me to find jobs that rely on me starting things up and getting them running well. A couple years ago, I discovered that there is a term for this - it's called being A Starter.
Being a Starter does not mean that you don't have the ability to finish things, rather, it's that you start things so that the "Worker Bees," who enjoy maintaining well running things, can take over. Being a Starter is about knowing when the starting stops and letting go.
What does that mean for me now? I'm entertaining some ideas about becoming a small office organizer. I'd go in, assess the office, help to get them running and organized, and then when it's like a well oiled machine, move on to the next office. Or something like that, that leans on my natural giftings.
It's hard to be a Starter though, in a culture that values the every day routines, the consistent work, the finishers. It may be akin to being a seed planter in Christianity - you sow, but don't reap, therefore your "success" is less measurable. I was taught that if you start something, you finish it. While that may be true for some things, it isn't true, true, to the way I work at projects. It's not that I can't finish something, but there are some things that I need to be able to let go and let others take over.
After being clearer on this Starter thing (I'm still learning to lean into it), I am more able to let go of things and not feel like I failed. On the other hand, when a new dream or idea starts, I can better manage how I go about it, knowing that this may not be something that I do for more than a year or two.
Some things that I'm recently letting go are:
- Quilting
- Running
- Gardening (though that may shop up again)
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