unfinished projects

For those of you who know me well, you know very well that I start many things with gusto. I have grand dreams and great visions. I have the best of intentions. But somewhere along the way, the steam runs out. I never intend to quit (this is evidenced by my large box of craft projects that I will get back to... someday). Every book I've ever started and not finished has a book mark placed firmly between the pages where I left off, that quilted wall hanging that I started in college is neatly tucked into a bag with ALL of the supplies necessary to complete it, my wedding scrapbook looks great (in so far as it has been completed).
As I reflect on all of these great starts today, I find myself a little discouraged. I can put the projects in a box and the books on a shelf, but I have to occasionally face the fact that these well started, excellent projects are weighing me down. The hard to face truth is that I fail to finish things that I start... not everything, especially not those projects where other people are counting on me! The projects that I fail to finish are the ones that I begin for my own growth and my own joy. What is it about me completing a project for myself that causes me to fall short? Do I somehow fear that the final project won't measure up to the idealized image in my mind? Do I find myself (in the words of a friend) chasing every pretty little butterfly, not setting my heart and hands to the task before me? I think that this will take more time to think through, but for now I'm picking up one of those good for me books that I began in the summer and I am determined that I will finish it before it goes back on the shelf.
On another note, I'm really thankful that this is one of the ways that God and I are still different... the good work He began in me, He is faithful to COMPLETE. Perhaps this is one more instance where I see the need for my own transformation. He's not finished with me yet!