Today marks 12 full months that I’ve been working on a side project called Howdy.

In that time I’ve:

Re-written the code base 4 times (Laravel, Vanilla JS, React, then back to Vanilla JS).

Started working with a partner, then broke it off.

Seriously considered stopping and working on other side projects at least half a dozen times.

Taken 2 month-long sabbaticals where I didn’t work on the project at all.

I’m happy with the tech stack that I have now and the project is probably 90% complete, but I’m finding it extremely hard to finish.

The resistance

In The War of Art and Turning Pro, Steven Pressfield talks about “The Resistance” that keeps us from doing our work.

If you’re a maker and you’ve yet to read these two books, do yourself a favor and buy them today.

It get’s worse the closer you are to completion

Pressfield says:

The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows that we’re about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it’s got.

My brain is literally trying to convince me to quit and to start working on “this other exciting new project”.

The ever so quiet whispers in my head are saying:

A year! Why haven’t you shipped yet? What a failure. Save your dignity. Just call it a wraps.

This is boring. Just shelve this project and move on to something fun & exciting.

No one will actually use this.

Will designers really find this useful?

What if you launch and no one finds it valuable?

This niche isn’t big enough. You should change the target to developers? Marketers? Sales?

Stay safe. Make it as generic of an offering as possible. That way anyone can use it.

And even though I know that these are all fabricated to get me to stop, the temptation to actually stop is legit.

I am very tempted to stop.

It get’s worse the more important it is to us

Pressfield says:

The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we’ll feel towards pursuing it.

As tempting as it is to call it quits, I honestly think my heart will break if I don’t finish this project. I can think back to so many moments where I still had optimism, hope, and excitement for this project. Where did all of that excitement go? Where is the hope now? How can I get it back?

Side projects are bloody hard

Massive props to anyone who is able to launch a side project and stick with it for a year or more.

Optimism, hope, and excitement be damned…

I’m not giving up on this one.

The resistance is real, but so is my aspiration to have dogged determination!

I will launch this project. 🤘

Wish me luck.

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