On Starting Over

Starting over is usually described as brave. I think it is mostly just honest.

There comes a point when patching the old thing costs more than building the new one. Every fix carries the weight of every decision made before, until you are spending more time maintaining the past than making for the present.

But starting over is not erasing. Nothing is built from nothingness, The new thing carries the old thing inside it: the lessons, the mistakes you can now recognize from a distance. That is why a fresh start feels both strange and familiar.

People fear starting over because they think it means the earlier effort was wasted. It isn't. The earlier effort is what taught you what to build this time.

So start over when the work asks for it. Keep what was good. Leave what was heavy. And remember that beginning again is not going backward; it is one of the way to move forward...