Swimming after ships that have already sailed

 I touch on this topic a lot,  because it is one of my flaws. 
Most would see it as a strength, but for me it doesn't work that way.
I just hate to waste anything. Waste is a bad thing. We all are taught that as we grow up. We are very aware of it.

"Eat your food, finish your supper. There are kids who are starving in Africa who would kill to clean up your plate."

But at some  point, you have to realize that some  things need to be let go and thrown out. For example.

Because I write so much and at times am a very poor finisher as well as also have long lazy streaks,  many of my blogs and scripts get stale and old, even if they were very good to start with,  just because they are not timely anymore. The ones related to news items are the most obvious. I might put countless hours into them, not quite finish them,  let them sit, and when I go back to them, the ship has already sailed. Nobody cares anymore. Even I barely care anymore.  But I just can't bring myself to delete them and move on. 
I have had that happen many times with blogs I wrote about sports. Hot button news items are another. Scripts that have some relation to trends also fall into that category.
So, why do I keep them? Even a better question: Why don't I take the waste out and put it where it belongs, in the garbage?
If I buy a ticket for a cruise ship, I fully intend to use it,  almost under any circumstances. But, what if I were to arrive late and the ship has already sailed? What are my options there? 
Well,  I could try to get the ship to come back to port and let me board. But, the world doesn't work that way. The world waits for no one. When the ship sails, it sails. It doesn't come back. When the world moves on, moves forward, as it always does if you get left behind, so be it. 
I could try to catch up. In this instance, I could rent a boat and try to catch up to the ship and then board it. That could work, but most likely it would not for a variety of reasons. 
Or I could try to swim for it. Yes, swim for it. I could swim after a ship that has already sailed in the vein attempt to catch it and get back in time harmony. As foolish as this sounds, this is exactly what I am doing, metaphorically speaking in my life. I have missed the boat and I am swimming in vein trying to catch it.
The reality of getting over this is to just cut my losses, learn my lesson, buy another ticket with my newly focused energy, and make sure I don't miss the next boat.     
Instead of swimming after a ship that has sailed,  one I have no hope of catching I need to use my energy to figure out why I missed it,  make sure I don't miss the next one and only use my energy to make that happen. 
Any time you use your energy towards something that is already waste, it takes away the energy to be put towards the useful projects.
That is a very hard thing to grasp for many. I am  one of those many.