The Tension of the Incomplete
“I’m in the flow. I can’t leave now…”
At work, at play, …
… at any time other than when something is complete, it is incomplete.
Obvious.
But, what is not obvious are its tensions.
The Pull of the Incomplete
The incomplete pulls every moment, a wave we ride as we reflect on current experience, sense some direction, and sail forward.
We can study the tension, such as with what has been termed the “Zeigarnik Effect“, essentially referring to open tasks occupying our short-term memory until done.
Even beyond short-term memory, we can leverage a time between visits where unconscious seeds stir, ready to sprout at a next visit under a fresh light of being.
Meanwhile, a project left alone for long enough, loses its tensions to time. Projects gather dust in a corner, reminding us of yet another incomplete piece of work, a particular point of pain for a wandering mind.
We “lose motivation.”
Excuses of the Incomplete
Perhaps we can put a positive spin on it, invoking one of our great wandering minds:
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” – DaVinci
But couldn’t we abuse this statement to simply leave things incomplete?
We can lose the depth of meaning behind phrases like,
“I’m a big picture person!”
Here, we effectively say someone else could take care of the details as if it were outside of our ability or, worse yet, “beneath us.” With some reflection, we may discover a fear of tedium, of self-revelation in a completed work, of anger at someone who assigned the task, among many other possibilities.
Perfectionism awaits in every crevice, prematurely abandoned projects mock us, while DaVinci cautions completion as fantasy.
How can we ever manage the myriad tensions of the incomplete?
How to Manage the Incomplete
Of course, the answer is both simple and not simple at all: Acknowledgement.
In the moment, at visit’s end, and as it appears in reverie throughout the day, we can always pause and reflect, allowing the thoughts and emotions their time to settle into awareness,
to deliberately sense the tension of the incomplete.
It is in the direct conscious feeling of that tension that we can most clearly decide when the incomplete is complete.
– Kourosh
PS Today’s post is good enough.
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