We see the final product of your work and I wonder, am I the only one who gives up on new ideas? I give up on things that at first excited me but later I didn't have the strength to complete? Do you too have uncompleted projects that we just don't know of?" -- Alkistis

When we see people on social media, we usually see the best of their lives. We see them having fun, but we don't see them having a row with their spouse. We see them celebrating a kid's graduation, but not the endless battles to get that kid out of bed every morning. This is just the way we are - very few people share complaints or failures online.

Similarly, when you run a business, you don't share the projects that don't get off the ground. There would be no point. So I share the book I wrote, or the podcast I make every week, or the courses I teach - but I don't share the things I decided not to pursue, or the things I tried that didn't work out.

But the question above made me realise that this gives a false impression. It makes it seem that I don't have those failed projects and I do - lots of them. I have all sorts of ideas that feel exciting and then that somehow run out of steam before I even put take one step towards actually doing them.

I have other projects that I actually start and then somehow just don't want to complete.

I think of my art life like a long journey .... sometimes I take the right road and things work out. One thing leads to another - a podcast, a show, a course etc. - and I keep travelling. But sometimes I go down the wrong road and find myself in a cul-de-sac. Then I have to turn round and head back to rejoin the route I was supposed to be on.

I guess the hard part is knowing if you're giving up because this idea really wasn't for you - or because you're just not willing to put in the necessary work. And really only we know the answer to that in our own lives.

But speaking for myself, I can say that I think I give up when the idea really didn't have enough behind it. Perhaps it was a spur of the moment thing without any real depth to it. Or perhaps it was inspired by something another artist did that looked interesting.

In these cases, I don't beat myself up about walking away with the project undone - I just accept that it was the wrong idea or perhaps the wrong time.

The ideas that actually get made are the ones that won't leave me alone. They don't get boring. They have a kind of inner energy that moves them along, almost without me trying too hard. Things just seem to fall into place.

My book Lifeforce was like that. I had the idea to make a series of paintings inspired by the poetry of Ted Hughes and then I was suddenly inspired to write a book, but I had no idea how to get it published. I mentioned it one day to a small group of artists I knew and one of them told me about a publisher she had worked with. My plan was to self-publish the book, but when I contacted them, they offered me a contract. Then they said they needed a draft within a few months. It all happened really quickly and I had to get up early every morning so I could write enough to meet the deadline. But it worked and the book came out!

My podcast worked the same way ... I had the idea, mentioned it to Alice (who I barely knew) and when she said yes, her enthusiasm carried me along and fired up my enthusiasm and within a few weeks, we had put out our first episode! Then we enjoyed it so much that we just kept going.

I think if that had been a bad idea, we would have run out of steam quite quickly and only made a few episodes. If the book had been a bad idea, I wouldn't have ever finished my draft.

So while I do think you have to work hard and persevere, I tend to think that the right ideas carry you along on their tide. You don't have to fight to make them happen, you just keep paddling!

But if we beat ourselves up about this, these ideas can become like millstones around our neck, dragging us down and making us feel inadequate. Don't let that happen to you - as artists we have a million ideas and we can't possibly execute them all. Let yourself off the hook for all the ones you can't complete - there will be plenty that are just right for you :)