Finishing things you start
How to Get Better at Finishing Things You Start
You have an idea—an inspiration—someone says something and you go, “I could do that!” You get interested, go down an internet search rabbit hole to learn more, and get more excited and motivated than you have in a long time. In those moments, the effort to take action can feel…effortless. You’ve got this. And then? Something happens.
Finishing What You Start is a Life Skill
People often assume that those who can finish what they start just have some inherent, special way of “knowing” how to do that—but really, finishing what you start is a life skill that you can learn. As with any life skill, it takes practice and you’ll practice by breaking that down into its component parts: identifying why you want to do the thing, what kind of consistent actions will be necessary, where those actions will fit into your calendar, and what you’ll do if things get challenging.
Finishing What You Start: Why do you want to do it?
No one wants to finish something if they don’t have a strong “why” behind even doing it. If you’re not really sure what your motivation is for doing something, it’s inevitable that your motivation will dwindle.
If you’re going to run the marathon, you need to know why you want to do it—to sustain the training you’ll need to sustain, you can’t just do it on a whim.
If you’re going to start a business, you need to know why you want to do it—because that “why” will carry you during the initial tough years of not knowing what you’re doing or where the money is coming from.
So, grab a piece of paper and a journal and ask yourself what your “why” is. Why do you want to do the thing? Why is it important to you? Why will completing this goal benefit your life?
Finishing What You Start: Taking Consistent Action
Rarely ever do we get to a finish line with a goal in one quick action step. You’ll need to take small, repeatable, consistent actions. The marathon goal is apt, here. If you want to run a marathon, you’ll need to run smaller distances, consistently.
We can compare that to general changes you want to make in life. If you want to become more courageous, you have to have courageous habits. Small, repeatable and consistent actions that you practice regularly become habits, and then that becomes your default way of being. There’s no way to shortcut that.
Finishing What You Start: Finding the Time
Having good intentions around doing something, taking those small actions that will allow you to finish what you start, won’t work if you don’t have time on your calendar. If you’re going to run the marathon, you have to know when you’re training. If you’re going to create courage as a habit, you’ve got to know when you’re going to practice courage tools like accessing the body or reframing limiting stories. (When I first started practicing these tools, I’d set aside 20 minutes per day to check in with myself, and would literally put a little “X” in the back of a Moleskine notebook to “check off” that I had done what I had said I would do. It was only through that small daily accountability that I could get consistent with using my tools).
Find a way to put the action on your calendar, put a post-it on your bathroom mirror to remind you, or load the ping into your phone at a specific time so that you stop and do the thing you said you’d do—only through repeatedly doing what you say you’re going to do, do you have any hope of finishing what you start.
Finishing What You Start: Prepare for Setbacks
The best of intentions go sideways the weeks we get sick, our partner needs more support than usual, the water heater breaks. Make backup plans that you only utilize if your primary plan doesn’t work. For instance, if you are training for the marathon and you get sick and have to take a week off, immediately look at your calendar to re-structure the next week of training to accommodate the rest.
Tools to build more self-confidence can be used anywhere—the next time you encounter a setback, decide right there that your mentality is to use that setback as a way to become more resilient, to get curious about what your inner critic says when you’re stressed and how to reframe that voice.
Finishing What You Start Isn’t About Willpower
It’s not just gritting your teeth and fighting your way through. Finishing what you start is actually about setting up a structure that allows you the space to truly make shifts. The systems that you set up for finishing what you start end up priming you to truly be in a position to set your course, take action, follow through, and arrive at that finish line.