Am I A Quitter? - Part I

Ok ya'll...I'm continuing the confessing I started last week...

I've been thinking this week about all the things that I have started and haven't finished. I love to try new things and I get excited fairly quickly when I learning something new. Maybe it's a form of adult-onset A.D.D. There are reminders all over my home of things that I've set out to do but are yet incomplete.

Two years ago, I started a quilting class with my daughter. The quilt is in my closet folded up - about 1/8 of the way from completion.

I have three scrapbooks started. One for Sumo, one for Kano, and for the family. None of them have more than 6 - 8 pages.

I've started cleaning my closet more times than I can count. The back of the closet hasn't been touched for the last three years.

I have a pile of items to sell on Craig's List of Ebay. The pile is growing faster than the items sell.

Books are a passion of mine. However, I buy them faster than I can read them. Being less than 10 minutes from a Barnes & Noble doesn't help my case, neither do my visits to the annual homeschool book fairs (yes that's plural). Add to that, the reading that I need to do to keep up with my children's learning journey is piling up too.

Recently, I've taken on a part time job of sorts. I'm doing an editing project on a book. I've had a year to do it. Why am I feeling rushed?

I've started more Bible Studies than I care to remember. The Believing God Bible Study by Beth Moore is still on the book shelf that it sat on when I started it two years ago. Both summers since, it's been on my "to do" list.

And let's not forget the story that I started on this blog that is yet awaiting the next part. I think I ran into a writer's block and just never picked up where I left off.

Although I enjoy my life and never quite get stuck in a rut or fall to boredom often, does this mean that I'm highly distractable, undisciplined, or lazy?

Mulling over this question I'm reminded of a situation in my young life that exemplifies the issue.

When I was in high school, I ran track. Although, my true desire was to be a sprinter and join the elite on the 400 meter relay team, the reality was I just wasn't fast enough. So, I got put in longer distance races. Instead of being on the 400 meter relay team, I had to run the whole thing by myself. This race still has an element of sprinting to it. I mean you have to run a quarter mile full speed! Needless to say, this was a struggle for me too. The same folks who were running 100 meter dashes and could keep it up for awhile, were the same people who entered the quarter mile races. I ended up discouraged at many of the track meets. I wanted to run.

So, my coach started me running the 800 meter. She obviously thought I was a glutton for punishment. Now I'm sure, that in some higher level track programs, the 800 meter is a sprint too. However, in high school, in my day :), it was considered to require a little more than speed. It also required more endurance.

I hated running this race.

I hated feeling like my lungs were going to pop out of my chest cavity and that I was going to pound on them with my spikes on the asphalt. My head hurt, my thighs ached, and my arms would be on fire. It was miserable. And that was when I was running the race at a track meet. Practices held triple the torture.

I had to run longer and faster in preparation for my performance at a meet. The 800 meter became two miles for practice in endurance, and 200 meter dashes eight times for speed. I would leave the track every evening dying a slow death. But, I wanted to run.

One of the funniest stories we tell over and over at our family dinner table is of the time my dad came to watch me run the 800 meter...

Click here for Part II