Finishing What You Started This Year

My boys,

By this point in the year, I can see the difference between what is unfinished and what is simply over.

Those are not the same thing.

So before I carry another pile of half-finished things into another year, I am making a list.

Not of everything I hoped to do.

Of what still deserves to be done.

1. The promise I made.

Finish it.

If I gave someone my word, inconvenience does not release me from it.

A promise does not become less important because the excitement around making it disappeared.

2. The repair I keep walking past.

Finish it.

The loose hinge.

The dripping faucet.

The board leaning against the workshop wall for three months.

Small unfinished things take up more room in the mind than they do on the workbench.

Fix it.

Put the tools away.

3. The conversation I have postponed.

Have it.

There are conversations that become heavier every week you avoid them.

Apologize.

Ask.

Clarify.

Tell the truth kindly.

Do not make another calendar carry what courage could finish this afternoon.

4. The book I stopped enjoying halfway through.

Lay it down.

This took me too long to learn.

Finishing everything is not discipline.

Sometimes it is stubbornness wearing respectable clothes.

You are allowed to close a book that has given you what it had to give.

5. The project that still matters but needs more time.

Keep it.

Not everything unfinished is late.

Some things take years.

A business.

A craft.

A body of work.

A relationship being rebuilt.

Do not abandon something worthy merely because you underestimated how long worthy things take.

Change the deadline.

Not the calling.

6. The idea I loved more than the reality.

Let it go.

Some ideas are beautiful until you meet them.

Then you discover you liked imagining the thing more than doing the thing.

That is useful information.

You do not owe every good idea a lifetime.

7. The habit I keep promising to begin Monday.

Begin badly today.

Walk ten minutes.

Read five pages.

Save twenty dollars.

Pray the short prayer.

Clean one drawer.

Perfect beginnings are one of procrastination's favorite disguises.

8. The thing I am keeping because I already spent too much on it.

Be careful.

Money spent is already spent.

Time spent is already spent.

Years spent are already spent.

Do not sacrifice tomorrow just to prove yesterday was not wasted.

Sometimes the wisest finish is stopping.

9. The work that is ninety percent done.

Finish it.

This is where I can be terrible.

Starting gives energy.

Almost finished feels close enough.

So the last ten percent sits there for six months.

Send it.

Hang it.

File it.

Publish it.

Deliver it.

Done has a peace that almost done never will.

10. The version of myself I promised I would become this year.

Give him grace.

This one does not get a check mark.

You are not a kitchen renovation.

You do not "finish" becoming a man.

There are things I hoped would be stronger in me by now.

Some are.

Some aren't.

God is still working on me.

I am still working too.

That is enough honesty for one list.

11. The things that belonged to this season.

Thank them.

Then lay them down.

Not every ending is failure.

Some work was only meant to carry you from there to here.

A role.

A plan.

A routine.

An ambition.

Even a relationship in the form it once had.

Do not keep resurrecting something simply because you remember how much it once mattered.

12. What still matters when nobody is watching.

Carry that forward.

Faith.

Your word.

Your health.

Your children.

Your people.

Your craft.

The work you believe God actually placed in your hands.

Those things rarely shout.

They do not need January to become important again.

My boys,

There is still time left in this year.

More than two months.

That is enough time to finish something.

It is also enough time to stop something.

Both can require discipline.

Look at what remains.

Ask what still deserves you.

Finish what should be finished.

Release what should be released.

And do not drag dead things across a threshold simply because you once called them plans.

I love you.

— Baba

Question:

What unfinished thing in your life needs your effort—and what unfinished thing needs your permission to end?

Moral:

Discipline is not finishing everything you begin. It is learning what deserves completion, what deserves patience, and what you have enough wisdom to finally lay down.

This story reflects real experiences and philosophies behind Backyard Brew. It is shared to preserve perspective, discipline, stewardship, and intention.

Author: R. Solace