The Myth of Finishing Everything
There’s a strange satisfaction in checking things off a list. For years, I equated that satisfaction with success. The more lines I could cross out, the more productive I felt. But here’s the problem: the list never ended. For every task I completed, two more showed up.
At some point, I realized I wasn’t chasing completion. I was chasing a mirage.
The Problem With “Done”
One Saturday, I decided I was going to “catch up” on everything. I made a long list (laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, answering the backlog of emails) and told myself that by Sunday night, life would feel lighter.
By mid-afternoon, the laundry was clean but not folded, the groceries were bought but not prepped, and the inbox had spawned new replies that made the list longer than when I started. Instead of relief, I felt like I was drowning in loose ends.
That’s when it clicked: real life doesn’t hand out finish lines. Laundry, parenting, email, recovery, learning… none of these end. There’s no ribbon to break through. Instead, life keeps cycling, looping back, asking us to try again. And if we’ve been taught that success only counts when something is “done,” that cycle feels like failure.
Redefining Progress
I had to stop measuring myself against “finished” and start paying attention to movement instead.
Did I make one thing clearer for a client today? Did I help my son try something new, even if it was awkward? Did I close the laptop before my brain tipped into exhaustion?
None of these actions land neatly on a checklist. But they matter. Maybe they matter more than the list ever did.
The Quiet Power of Ongoing Work
There’s a phrase I come back to often: good enough for today.
Not perfect, not final. Just enough. Because if I keep waiting for the mythical moment when everything is wrapped up, I’ll miss the progress that’s already happening in real time.
Maybe the truth is that finishing everything was never the point. Maybe the point is noticing what we’re carrying, what we can set down, and what we choose to keep moving forward.
Final Thought
The myth of finishing everything is just that: a myth. What matters is the rhythm we create inside the ongoing work. Sometimes, the bravest move is to stop chasing “done” long enough to see where you already are.
