Finishing Isn’t Always the Win

This project took me over a year to finish. Not because it was complicated, but because I kept walking away from it.

I would try to make progress, get frustrated, and leave it alone for a few weeks. Then I’d come back determined to finish it, only to hit the same wall again. That cycle repeated itself more times than I can count.

And now that it’s done, I’m not even sure it was worth the time I put into it. That realization stuck with me more than the project did.

I bought the room screen for $5 at the Strawtown Flea Market in Noblesville, Indiana. This flea market is my favorite of all time. It is like a weekly garage sale. It’s only open on Thursdays, with an auction in the evening. The video below shows the flea market haul that included the room screen.

The frame started out black. I painted it and sealed it, then moved on to the part that slowed me down for months.

The screen is made from six burlap coffee bags, cut into eighteen panels. Nine on the front, nine on the back. I stapled the front panels into place, then folded the edges in and stapled them again. On the back, I folded and finished the edges before attaching them.

It sounds straightforward when I say it like that. It wasn’t. It was trial and error. Mostly error.

I now find it entertaining to watch the screen fall on my head over and over. It wasn’t so funny in the moment.

What finally got it done was having B stand behind the screen and hold it steady so I could stop fighting it and just finish.

I stayed with this longer than I should have, not because it was the best use of my time, but because I had already invested so much into it. Walking away felt like wasting it. Finishing it didn’t fix that. All it did was turn a long, frustrating project into something finished that I’m not even sure I want.

That’s a pattern I recognize now. Not just in projects, but everywhere I’ve already invested. Once something costs you time, money, or energy, it starts to pull you forward whether it should or not.

The better question isn’t “Can I finish this?” It’s “Should I keep going at all?”

I didn’t ask that soon enough.