Guard the Vision in Your Heart by Sandi Somers

While living in Colombia, South America, my friend Bessie and I visited her former colleagues in Bogota. As we stepped into their high-rise apartment, it felt like a penthouse: elegant, classy, and affluent. Not something I expected from missionaries who normally lived in modest homes. After our hostess greeted us warmly, I noticed the dinner table was set with a linen cloth, silverware and bone China. During dinner, whenever our hostess wanted the maid’s service, she rang the tiny bell beside her plate. The maid, wearing a stereotypical black dress and white apron, appeared from behind the closed kitchen door. Though maids were common among missionaries, I was not used to such formality.

However, years later when I read my journal, I had only briefly mentioned these details: “Do they ever have culture and ‘class’!...a different society!”

But my journal included interesting details I had forgotten. Completely. Their son, John, an MBA student at Harvard University, was visiting his family for Christmas. Also visiting was his grandmother. My journal notes that John, “confided to his grandmother (but made sure I heard), that he liked ‘Southern belles, Jewish girls, and foreign girls’, which included me in the list.”

How could I have forgotten those people and those delicious details?

Shortly afterwards, I read an article that pointed to what I experienced: the Zeigarnik Effect, named after Bluma Zeigarnik, the Russian psychologist of a century ago. She studied how waitresses remembered complex orders but then forgot the details once the order was completed. This led to the principle: We forget completed tasks. We remember unfinished tasks because we need to mentally hang onto the details.

How can this concept relate to our month’s theme of guarding our hearts?

What has God put in your heart to write and you haven't finished? Are you discouraged? Can't think of how to write it? Do you keep putting it off?

I’ve put writing projects on hold for various reasons. Yet I keep mulling over ideas, jotting notes, writing thoughts in my journal.

These unfinished projects won’t let go.

I’m now consciously working on finishing a number of those undertakings, and I have some strategies if you are in the same situation.

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Begin with prayer. Pray into the vision of what you know God has planted in you. Picture the book in your hands. Visualize that article published. Guard that vision in your heart.

Write a summary of what you want to say, and this will help focus your thoughts.

Reread your work after six months—or longer. Seeing it with fresh eyes will point out what you know is good, and perhaps how you can finish it.

Adapt Brenda Wood’s recommendations in last month’s blog post: write missing parts in your morning pages. Fill out scenes. Write a new transition. Reorganize your structure. Experiment with different introductions or applications. Then transcribe those drafts into the appropriate projects.

Take a morning or whole day for a self-guided retreat. Blocking this time gives you more headway than working little by little. You may need more time than just a day, but at least you'll have a good start at finishing.

If November is nearing, challenge yourself to complete what you started through participating in NaNoWriMo (for fiction) or Write Nonfiction in November.

You may need to let a project go. Accept that it just isn't workable. However, you can perform transplant surgery and add pieces to some other works in progress.

If you’re still “finishing challenged”, invite a coach, an editor, or a trusted confidant to share their perspectives. Taking a course might be a good way to go.

And finally, guard God’s words to you in your heart. He might say, “Be strong and finish the work”, or “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3). Or He might encourage you with a new direction: “For I am about to do something new…. Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness (Isaiah 43:18-19 NLT).

As we listen to the Spirit’s promptings, trust God, and step out in faith, He’ll help us bring to completion what we’ve started.

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Breathing New Life into Unfinished Projects by Sandi Somers

Brenda Leyland, in an article called, “The Hindrance of Unfinished Projects” said, “A half-done project is much like starting a race and then dropping out before you get to the finish line. What Olympian would even consider such a thing?”  (In FellowScript, November 2012, p. 4)

                                                

Uncluttering Our Minds

What happens to our minds when we have half-completed projects?

           

I know. I’ve done it.

 I’ve had to put writing projects on hold while working on others. But my mind is sometimes still back with the first projects: mulling over ideas, jotting notes as I listened to sermons, writing thoughts in my journal—even grabbing scraps of paper to record a fleeting thought. (I once pasted these scraps of paper in my journal, giving them the title: “Unfinished Symphonies”.) It’s as if my mind knows there’s more I could say.

Russian psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik

I experienced what is known as the Zeigarnik Effect: we remember unfinished tasks more than completed ones because we need to keep them in mind until we experience closure. If we hang on to too many unfinished projects, our minds become cluttered. Anxiety builds. We become preoccupied. We forget simple tasks. We can become so paralyzed that we don’t accomplish much at all. 

So how do we tackle those projects and untangle our minds? What are immediate and long-term strategies to get to the finish line? Although we don't have complete answers, our writers this month will give us a wide selection of experiences and strategies to help us.

Here follows suggestions I've learned over the last months and years.

From There to Here: The Way Forward

Begin with prayer. I began preparing for this month’s topic by reading Richard Foster’s book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. He said we need vigorous prayer for “a vision to create new solutions to old problems…We must pray for God to make a way where there is no way (to) “dream new dreams and see new visions.”

Recognize how our personalities and habits affect our patterns of finishing (or not). Some people have greater organizational and efficiency skills than others. They work boldly toward their goal, while ones like me need time to think issues through before making decisions.  But sometimes we don’t finish because of uncertainty, fear, or even procrastination. Recognizing where we are is an important step.

Work towards mastery of our craft. Musicians, artists, and writers say it takes seven to ten years, or 10,000 hours, to develop optimum skills and efficiency.  It takes patience and perseverance to develop good writing skills. I found that diagnosing and listing those areas where I need more mastery provided good insight and motivation. Taking courses, receiving coaching, entering contests with constructive critiquing, and submitting what I’ve completed, all develop my skills and help me to finish a project.

Revise. Revise. Revise. “All good writing is rewriting,” is wise advice. Even Billy Graham revised his sermons up to twelve times. Our first drafts are just our initial thoughts. But the real work comes with revising.  In revising, I’m shaping my thoughts, developing insights, and adding depth and meaning.  At the same time, I’m learning how to bring my work to a satisfying conclusion.

Set realistic goals. This too is part of the learning process. Several years ago I planned to write far too many articles in a week or month. But I'm gradually learning how much I can accomplish and can plan more reasonable steps.

Develop the discipline of focus. Focusing means letting go of distractions while trying to write. Social media. TV. The laundry (it can wait). I particularly get distracted by the “Shiny Object Syndrome”, where I can’t resist writing some new exciting idea before finishing the old project, especially when we hit a snag or get mired in the middle. Harnessing those shiny objects is key. Write about them first thing as “warm-ups”. Write them in our journals. Incorporate them into our current projects. Or even let them go.

Choose the next project wisely. I’ve found Madeleine L’Engle’s process very helpful. She envisioned books she would someday write and compared her ideas to soups in different pots simmering on the back of her stove. Whenever an idea popped into her mind, she added these thoughts to the appropriate “soup”—like adding an onion or carrot to the real thing. Then when she was ready to begin a new book, she’d bring forward the most complete “soup pot” and begin writing.  God will help us choose each project in its proper order.

Take the challenge to change.  Change may not come easily. James Clear contends that small but consistent changes increase our chances of success (read his article here). Goethe advised, “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it and finish it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” The writer of Proverbs wrote, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3 NIV). When we take courage and trust God to begin where we are, God will empower and energize us.

                       

Accept God’s promise. Know that God always leads us! “For I am about to do something new,” He said. “See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland (Isaiah 43:18-19 NLT).

What is that new thing for you?

What does God want you to forget and not dwell on?

How does God want you to begin where you are?

 “Dear Lord, I…invite you into these unfinished areas of my life…Shine your Light and show me how I got here in the first place, and how I can remove the hindrances. I long to accomplish the plans and purposes you have set before me. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” (Brenda Leyland)

God is the God of breakthroughs.

PS  Read these practical ideas on decluttering your writing. Also read Jeff Goins’ article here. Well worth reading!