On Taking Little Steps

I’ve been working on my grad school thesis lately, which is why I’ve been so quiet here. It’s a daunting project, or at least it seemed that way when I first started to tackle it, back in June 2009. +20,000 words? On a subject of my choosing? Based on research I conducted? Myself? And things I found? On my own?

Gulp.

But then I started to read and write, and read some more, and jot down notes, and follow links. And although I knew it was going to be a big project, the biggest kind of project I had ever tackled, it wasn’t going to be so bad. But then… it became just a lot of information, scattered all over the place and it gave me a sick feeling in my stomach every time I thought about it so eventually I stopped thinking about it at all.

You can imagine what happens next. I tried not to think about it, except that doesn’t really work, does it, when there’s something big and unpleasant that you don’t really want to think about. You think about it anyway, in the back of your mind, in the middle of the night, as you’re driving to work or avoiding the phone.

Wait. Am I talking about grad school thesis projects or personal finance?

Last month I gave myself a strict talking to. No more avoidance. No more procrastinating. I sat down and organized my notes, wrote a plan and made it pretty. It didn’t seem so hard after all.

Since then I’ve been working steadily. A bit every day. It’s still a long, hard, slog, but I can see the end in sight.

What does your biggest challenge look like?