We started this big project at a large NGO, and guess what? We decided it wasn't worth continuing. So, when I went to the board of directors, I brought out some champagne. Before even starting the presentation, I served that champagne and explained that today is a celebration because we're ending a project. Felt weird, right?

In our culture, we celebrate creating new things. We have baby showers, launch parties and all that But, usually, stopping something feels like a huge failure. Instead of celebrating the end, we reflect on how to avoid similar ends in the future. That's our natural reaction.

it's important to celebrate ending projects, products, or services. Celebrate what we learned. Celebrate the impact we had serving people. And even better celebrate the resources we won't be using anymore—the savings we're making, the simplicity we've gained.

I believe we should even celebrate not doing a project or not launching a new service. It shouldn't just be a rational decision that makes us sad. Add some emotion to it! Celebrate being smart enough not to overwhelm ourselves or our customers with something new. Celebrate not burdening the world with more resource consumption.

Action question

How can you include celebrations as part of your project end routine? And how can you make it so that choosing not to do something feels more like a celebration than a failure?

Written with AI help
This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.