Welcome to a new episode of the savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every

week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero

judgment.

Now, each of us has abandoned a project at some point.

From a forgotten exercise plan to a half-built skateboard halfpipe in the backyard,

to the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, which has technically been under construction

since 1882.

But why does this happen?

What gets between the light bulb of the bright idea and the finish line of completion. Well it turns out there are

lots of reasons which lucky for us means there are lots of solutions. So this week

by request from listener Sony from Sydney, Australia,

we'll look at why we abandoned projects and how to salvage them. So first, let's get

organized.

There are two big buckets of reasons for abandoning projects.

The first bucket is filled with problems with motivation.

You don't really want to do the project, you don't see the point, or it's boring or

aversive.

The second bucket is filled with problems of follow-through, and these problems are markedly

different from the problems of motivation.

With follow-through problems, you can't make time, can't get organized, or feel overwhelmed.

So let's hit the highlights of both, and we will start with solutions to problems from the first bucket motivation.

So tip number one is dig deep to find the Y.

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