Be a finisher
I recently completed my first 100mile race. Even as 100mile runs go, this one is considered one of the more challenging subset. Half of everyone who started the Arc of Attrition didn’t finish. As a UTMB World Series race, the calibre was high including world-class runners. I finished in just over 28 hours. You can read my full race report on Strava.
A few weeks ago I posted a pre-print for a manuscript that I have been working on for 2 years. I first had the idea during my PhD 6 years ago. Unfortunately, this duration is not a reflection of the epic quality/quantity of the work, rather the struggle to finish.
[Now comes the contrived part where I compare finishing a paper to running a 100-mile ultra-marathon.]
For both, there is huge difference between 95% and 100% complete. You either completed the race or not; you published the paper or not. This is why being a ‘finisher’ is a key attribute. Everyone knows that the last 20% of a paper takes 80% of the pain. (And that was certainly true for the 100-miler too.) So, that is why ‘projects completed’ matters more than ‘projects underway’.
Not all research or quality improvement projects can (or should) be published. Sometimes completion looks like a departmental presentation and implementation of changes.
Be someone who finishes projects. And yes, it does always feel this hard towards the end.
