I've seen a pattern develop in my own life over at least the past 20 years and probably longer. I have this strong preference towards starting something and then getting distracted by something else and beginning down that road and completely forgetting to finish the first thing I started.
Serial starting probably began sooner in my life than this, but I distinctly remember laughing with my roommate Brandon after college about this particular character trait. Part of it is my mental illness, when you're in hypo mania or mania you believe every idea you have is brilliant and completely original. As Brandon has pointed out, there's just enough of a good idea in there that it easily leads to my obsessing about it for however long the episode of hypo mania may last.
For instance, once I had a great idea to run the Sarasota County School District buses off of used veggie oil. I had planned out the next 20 steps but never took the first step in my eagerness to have it all thought out before I started. Before you mock the ridiculousness of the idea, please note Dallas Public School District did that exact idea and saved over $1 million a year a couple of years after I had given up on the idea. It was when gas was $4/gallon in 2008, which would be equivalent to $5.25/gallon in today's dollars.
Another time I had an idea to start a garden with the youth group I helped sponsor. A year or two later, the youth minister thought it would be a great idea to...start a garden with the youth group.
The inspirations of these great ideas usually happened when I would travel overseas in the summers. I had time to think and not stress about the usual day to day of the school year when I was teaching. Different places would inspire me to think quite differently than I was accustomed to back when I was stateside. In Amsterdam in particular, an exhibit about the environment was particularly thought provoking. As a result I was called by one loving friend a "tree-hugging hippie." Which I laughed at because it was funny. Perhaps funnier yet though was how he later had the summer camp which he runs use the theme "Dirt" based on Creation Care. Maybe tree hugging wasn't all that bad after all ;)
People have coined bipolar illness as the "CEO disease." It gives a leader great visionary insight during the highs and then when the depression sets in it helps them get the ideas fleshed out in reality. I have yet to figure out how to harness this mental illness to my advantage. In December I got closer though as I wrote out some ideas of what I could implement during my next, hopefully long, period of stability. The tricky part is deciding which ideas are sustainable even during episodes of depression and which ideas are only sustainable during mania, in which case you think you're going to be amazing for the rest of your life.
Please don't misunderstand, some of that serial starting is due to my particular personality as well. I used to read 4-5 books at a time. Well, more specifically I'd start reading one book, get about a quarter of the way in, then get distracted by the next book, until I finished about half of 4 or 5 books before the process started all over again.
It can be rather fun as I like to keep my mind engaged. The more difficult and undoubtedly more important thing is figuring out which things to finish or at least focus on for a more extended period of time. That process takes a lot more wisdom and effort than simply starting something new again. His name eludes me at the moment, but I believe I read an author that wrote something along the lines of, "Perhaps the greatest tragedy isn't failing but rather succeeding at something that turned out to be unimportant all along."
So, here's to great ideas and starting something new. And an even bigger cheers to choosing what to focus on and finish.
