I'm very much like that, too. I can't remember where I heard it but sometime in the last few weeks I heard/read some psychology researcher talking about his findings- his assertion was that one very large component of happiness is never leaving things undone. Not that you complete every project, every day, but that you don't make a habit of immersing yourself in an overwhelming number of unfinished tasks/projects.For me, I know that I am happiest when I am doing something until what I think is important has all been done. When I know that I should be doing something but am procrastinating, I am at my "moodiest". I used to get a bad feeling in my gut when I would have undone homework, especially if it was an overwhelming amount. The only thing that would give me relief was to get to work.
For me, that is definitely true.
And Colin- I can tell you're defending something but I am not sure I understand what you're getting at, if you indeed feel the need to defend anything. I find it interesting that feel-happy self-help books, to use your charged terms haha, have in the past made you feel bad for not having gotten it right the first time. I've never really experienced that myself. I mean, I beat myself up for being 38 and being an incessant "seeker" and STILL not having it all sussed out, but I have never found that "happy manuals" make me feel any worse about my slow (but steady!) progress.
And by the way, I think a lot of the "progress" we make as we get older isn't a function of our figuring anything out of our own clever volition, but is more likely due solely to the aging process itself. As your younger years slip away from you, you really have no choice but to let go of much of what you clung to as a youth/young adult.
