Master the Art of Finishing What You Start
What exactly is finishing what you start and following through? You may have heard these phrases before but what do they mean?
To me, they mean making your intentions a reality. Too often, we’ll say we’ll do something and we might even start it one lucky weekend. But at the first sign of hardship, fatigue, boredom or busyness, we abandon it all too easily.
Finishing what you start and following through is breaking through that common loop and taking hold of your life.
Today I am going to introduce you to a 8 steps template. I believe all of you are ready to note down the steps. So, let’s get started. If you need to pause the podcast to note down, please do that.
Step 1: Stop Thinking, Just Execute
Anamika has thought about it a million times. She was stuck in a desk job for the past ten years. She had always fantasized about not having to do such monotonous paper work, not having to work under an ill-tempered boss, and not having to leave all her fun activities.
And how were such fantasies supposed to be realized? She had the answer: she figured she would begin her bonsai business right at home in her garden.
It was all a fantasy, a thought that would appear on difficult days of work. But then one day she finally decided that she would be doing it. After all it was her childhood dream to create beautiful bonsai. Her acquaintances have always encouraged her to take this hobby to a professional level.
So her quest of freedom began and she applied for a two weeks’ vacation to start testing the waters. She began with research, tried thinking about all the tools that she would require to get the business going. She also planned to survey her friends and the entire neighbourhood to get the feel of the market needs. It all began to take shape in her head.
Unfortunately, everything only stayed there in her head and never found a way out.
When her vacation began, she was doing other things that what she had earlier planned like doing some pending home projects, catching up with friends and not even asking them for the market input. She was worried thinking that people might find her too ambitious. She wasn’t able to deal with the idea of expectations hanging over her head.
Finally, the vacation ended and joined her office back with the bonsai business idea still under her head.
Now, what do you think went wrong with Anamika? Did she lack focus, self-discipline, action or persistence.
If you say all of the above, you’re actually pointed to just one concept: following through.
But if following through is so awesome, why don’t we all just do it all the time?
The short answer is because it’s hard. And, the long answer you’ll realize now:
The art of following through is something that allows you to create life that you want instead of settling for life you currently have.
This art has four parts: focus, self-discipline, action and persistence.
Let me remind you that there are powerful reasons behind this fact that we don’t finish what we start and follow through very often.
These are our inhibiting tactics and psychological roadblocks.
Inhibiting tactics are ways we plan against ourselves without even realizing it. They are
- Setting bad goals
- Procrastination
- Indulging in temptations and distractions
- Poor time management.
Psychological roadblocks are ways in which we are unconsciously protecting ourselves. They are
- laziness
- lack of discipline
- fear of judgement, rejection, and failure
- perfectionism out of insecurity
- lack of self-awareness.
Imagine if Anamika was aware of the barriers that were keeping her from following through. If she would have responded with the right tactics, she’d be waking up excited to get to work with something she’s passionate about. She’d be living the life she had only dreamed of.
Now Take a moment to consider the story of your own life. Are you following through on what you really want in life? Or are you constantly the victim to the same barriers that Anamika faced? If the answer is YES, then listen to the steps attentively.
Step 2: Staying Hungry
Here staying hungry means staying motivated. Now, there can be both external motivators and internal ones.
External motivators are when we leverage other people, places and things to push us into action. These methods include accountability partners and groups, putting money down upfront and self-bribery.
Internal motivators are when we look at how we stand to benefit and improve our lives. These are universal needs, drives and desires that are easy to lose track of. The easy way to find these is to answer a set of questions that directly asks things such as how am I going to benefit from this and how does my life stand to improve from this? It’s only through answering these questions that you realize what you are neglecting. Consider writing them down somewhere. Review the answers periodically to remind yourself why you want to change?
Anything we want to accomplish has an associated opportunity cost. We must sacrifice, even if it is an ability to lie on the couch and watch TV. Deal with it by reviewing your cost-benefit analysis. Look for motivation all around you as it is said that motivation works best when one is reminded of it.
Step 3: Create a Manifesto
A manifesto is nothing more than a set of rules to follow every day. We might hate rules but they give us guidelines to follow. They bring clarity to our actions. They show actually what we must do.
For example:
Rule 1: Are you acting out of laziness? If so, is this a characterization you want about yourself.
Rule 2: Plan, Three major tasks a day, maximum.
Rule 3: Create daily limitations and requirements for yourself. These are the building blocks of good habits.
Rule 4: Sometimes we lose sight of what we wish to accomplish. Thus reaffirm your intentions by stating “I want”, “I will” and “I won’t” statements.
Say them aloud to yourself.
Rule 5: Try to look into the future, 10 minutes, hours and days at a time. Every time you feel distracted, just exercise willpower for a few minutes longer, and you’ll follow through.
Do you like what you see when you consider not following through?
Probably not.
Step 4: Follow-Through Mindsets
Following through is 100% mental so it would be a good idea to talk about mindset.
A mindset is a set way of visualizing and approaching situations and problems. Certain mindsets are it takes to find the will and motivation necessary to follow through on something.
Mindset 1: It’s all worthwhile. If you feel that your hard work will get you somewhere, execution will be easier.
Mindset 2: Become comfortable with discomfort. Everything you want to do will have elements of discomfort, thus, becoming used to this feeling allows you to tackle what you want without fear.
Mindset 3: Without following through, there is no learning. Only when you finish something can you evaluate yourself and correct your answers.
Mindset 4: Even being in a poor mood is dangerous to your productivity and follow-through. Be aware and take proactive measures to modulate your stress levels.
Step 5: The Science of Smashing Procrastination
Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. You can beat it back for a bit, but it’s so natural that you will never be fully rid of it. The probl
em is typified by time inconsistency where we have two selves that don’t have overlapping desires – one wants gratification in the future and the other wants it right now.
Temptation budling is an effective method to battle it. It can be done by combining your unpleasurable tasks with something pleasurable. You give kind of two selves what they want simultaneously.
Begin easy and small. Try to make your path to motion and action as easy as possible. Then gain momentum in due course.
Sometimes beating procrastination just requires a kick in the pants. Sometimes you are so afraid of the negative repercussions that you come into action mode.
Step 6: No Distraction Zone
Minimize your distractions. This is like kicking your back. The points that I am going to discuss now are powerful. So, let’s continue.
If you’re constantly distracted, you succumb to temptations without even giving a chance to exercise your willpower. It just doesn’t occur to you and you choose the path of least resistance despite your best intentions.
So, don’t keep anything stimulating near your workstation otherwise your willpower will slowly deplete itself.
Create default actions wherever possible. Optimize your environment for self-discipline. Save your willpower and your energy by making positive changes to your environment. Free yourself from mindless pursuits of small pleasures. After all, why exercise willpower when you don’t need to if you can plan around it?
Do one task at a time. Because when you switch from task to task, you take time to adjust to a new one. It hampers your mental efficiency. For example, set everything aside and not check, monitor, email or even touch anything other than the current task you are working on. Switch off your notifications and ditch your phone. If you are on your computer, keep only one browser tab or program open at a time. The biggest culprits are your electronic devices. Ignore them when possible.
And lastly, everyone knows about the to-do list. Everyone knows what they should be doing. However, not everyone knows what they shouldn’t be doing. We all know the obvious evils to avoid when trying to upgrade productivity: social media or browsing the Internet. A don’t do list can be just as powerful as a to-do list. Include tasks you can’t move forward on, make progress on, or help.
Use the 40-70 Rule. This is when you beat inaction through the amount of information you seek. If you have less than 40%, don’t act. But if you have 70%, you must act. You’ll never have 100% and chances are 70% is more than sufficient – the rest you learn along the way.
Step 7: Deadly Pitfalls
There can be massive number of mistakes that you could make that could cost you your progress. These can be many but just to name a few or the more dangerous ones. So, listen carefully.
One is False hope syndrome. It’s when you expect that you will be able to change or improve to an unrealistic degree. So, when you fail, you get demotivated. It’s advisable to keep proper expectations and understand the difference between goals and expectations.
Secondly, Overthinking. Many people tend to this before actually getting down to work or take the first step. It does seem like action and productive but it is not. They best way is to just Zero in on the details that matter and deliberately ignore everything else. Thirdly is too much Worrying that leads to negative scenarios. Its best to focus on what you can do right now and only right now.
Lastly is try to know yourself. The ability to self-diagnose and be self-aware can help a great deal to yourself.
Step 8: Daily System for Success
This one is from my life. I began a consulting business. I was my own boss and didn’t anticipate any trouble managing any activity. Everything was great. I had time for every small task.
But as business took off, my inbox was inundated! List of clients grew longer. I was completely overwhelmed. Putting in 12 Hours a day was also less. Everything was changing into a mess. As a result, the business suffered. I, was in a mess.
What did I do wrong?
The answer is that I did not use a system. I relied on myself to get everything done and did not implement a way to organize and streamline work. My story reflects what happens when you try to always push yourself to do things that you need to do for success in life. You must create an organisational system to make your success consistent.
That is where daily systems come into play.
Implementing system brought my business back on track.
Secondly, you must keep a scoreboard for everything. It keeps you motivated and striving towards growth.
Learn to manage time. That will remove inefficiencies.
Gather all the information and materials you need all at once. This allows you to work interruption free and gather momentum.
So, these were all the steps. Following them will make you finish your work. Go ahead use the template and start with confidence.
I hope you found this blog useful. Please give a 5-star review and share your learnings below.
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