I love to finish projects. I feel as if we've climbed a mountain and planted a flag. Huge. Dopamine. Hit.

Before I learned the upside of canceling projects, I used to feel a sense of loss. Sometimes I was disappointed at what we were not going to accomplish.

If you look at project cancellations like this, you need to reframe your thinking.

Remember that when a project is canceled:

1. You saved the company money!

   Money spent on projects that are delivered and then a) aren't used or b) don't add value frees up money and resources to spend on other projects that are better aligned with the business objectives
   

2. You saved time!

   You saved the time of developers and business analysts. They can now focus on other projects that will add value to the business. More importantly, you saved your own time so that you can focus on other projects or goals.
   

3. You saved yourself Delivery Remorse!
   
   The cancelation saved everyone the frustration of finishing a project and realizing a few months later that it was pointless. You will not see the Business discard the solution or immediately tee up a better idea.

4. You learn from the cancellation.

   Immediately after a project is canceled, you should schedule a Lessons Learned review. How did this project get approved? What was missing that skewed the analysis to proceed?
   

5. You get smarter.

   Then you should take those Lessons Learned insights and file them away into your "Let's Not Do this Again File. If other projects are approved or fill the queue, you will recognize when something doesn't make sense early. Better still, you learn from the project without living through the pain of it.

Just because your Initiation process has spat out another project does not mean it needs to trundle onward to its conclusion. 

Stopping it in its place can be helpful: either as a monument warning against other boondoggles or reminding teams to review the ROI and Business need one more time.