"I Ran Out of Desire"

"I was going to finish it, but I ran out of desire"

My wife was explaining why she didn't finish the the bowl of fruit sitting on the table.  As soon as she said it, we shared a good laugh at her candor.

But then we talked about it more and realized, isn't this the true reason why we don't finish most things?   It could be that book we started last month, the project in the backyard, or our commitment to change the company culture.

Sure, we may blame it on other things: I ran out of time, it cost too much money, other priorities came up, etc.

But all those justifications could have been resolved if we wanted it bad enough.

There's nothing wrong with choosing not to finish.  But the more we can be honest with ourselves and acknowledge "I just didn't want it deeply enough to push through the obstacles", the more likely we are to confront the true obstacle (our own motivation) the next time.