A long drawing
You started a big picture. You have done the exciting part and now there is a lot of coloring left.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
A tricky puzzle
You have been stuck on the same bit for a while. It is not boring — it is hard.
What do you do?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
The start of something is exciting. The middle is often boring. That is normal and it happens to everybody.
The middle is where people stop
If you can get through the boring middle, you get to the end. The end is the good bit.
One more bit
When you want to stop, do one more small bit first. Then decide.
Step 3: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
Which part of making something is usually the hardest?
Step 4: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Finish one thing
- Find something you started and did not finish.
- Do one small bit of it today.
- Finish it this week.
Why: Finishing one thing you had given up on shows you that the middle really does end.
Step 5: What You Learned
- Starting is exciting. The middle is boring.
- Do one more small bit, then decide.
For the grown-up
Nothing in this chapter rewards finishing with a prize, deliberately. Children who finish for a reward stop when the reward stops, and the point is that finishing is its own thing.
Distinguishing bored from stuck is the useful adult question. Bored needs one more push; stuck needs help, and pushing a stuck child harder teaches the wrong lesson.
Choose things they can actually finish. A project too big for a six-year-old teaches abandonment rather than persistence.