Finish Line Mirage
Tagged as: Sep 04When I was at UCSD for my undergraduate program in Computer Science, I had a professor who told a story about working on a project. For the project, he was creating a new software system (the purpose of which I have since forgotten). He told how he was fairly quick in the design and starting of the program. There was steady progress until he was about 80% done.
He continued to work on it (because as you well know 80% is getting pretty close to 100%). However, with new changes, he kept discovering that more work needed to be done. He would have to go back over his code to change things that he thought that he had previously addressed. The thing was, the further along he got, the more he discovered that he wasn’t nearly as close as he thought. So while he got further along, the end remained elusively close and yet not quite close enough.
While he was talking about the difficulties of the complete software development process, I also feel like the same troubles can affect me. (Haha and sometimes it happens to me in the software development process.) I make strides when there is much to be done. But then things start getting down near the end. I can see the end. Or at least I think that I can. But things keep popping up that keep me from getting there. Things will get done, but for some reason it feels like I’m going nowhere fast.
From experience I’ve realized that I have to keep churning away at it until I’ve gotten there. When you’re climbing the hill, the end has to be the toughest (I mean, you’ve already spent all of that energy getting to where you’re at). But that triumphant moment when you get there, that’s worth it. Or, at least it usually is.
(Notice: Don’t climb mountains that you’re physically incapable of completing. I am just making my small commentary on life. I am in no way, shape, or form responsible if you actually fall off the side of a mountain.)
shouldnt give me ideas like this derek. i like to climb mountains that im physically incapable of completing. haha
You WOULD try to climb a hill that you’re incapable of climbing, wouldn’t you? And you would convince me to go along with you. And then I would chafe my hills and suffer all of the way to the top.
I won’t be climbing any mountains or hills…not real ones, anyway. But, you are exactly right. Unfortunately for me, I often fall apart right near that finish line. I’m a master at spinning wheels (and a master at real spinning wheels, too!…I’ve got five of them).
Wow that’s a lot of spinning!
Do you really fall apart near the finish line? I guess on the one hand that’s good because it means that you were giving it your all for the duration of your journey/race/whatever. I’m probably always just motivated because seeing the end provides a sudden burst of energy that I can use to power through that end.