Finish Give Yourself the Gift of Done

Last week’s book choice was Finish! by Jon Acuff. It is with no doubt that we are always excited to accomplish new projects, but along the line, they stall and remain unfinished.  Just to check, how are you doing with your goals for 2020? I can bet in January you were very excited about the planned achievement for the new year. I can also guess with no doubt that the gusto is dwindling. Our excuses are always the same, as we will tell ourselves or others that “life just got in the way,” or “I will never be able to get back on track.” 

According to Jon, the main reason why we find it hard to accomplish tasks that we have started is that we are seeking perfection. But if we are being truthful, a more accurate explanation will be “I quitted once it stopped being perfect,” because perfectionism acts as an obstacle when it comes to projects accomplishments. “If it is not perfect, then it’s not worth doing.” The truth is that, if we limit ourselves to perfect work, we will never accomplish anything!

It is quite unfortunate that we are always over-ambitious and forget to cut our tasks and goals into smaller pieces making perfection a challenge though not the only one since we are also associating goals with pain and other words such as “discipline” and “grind”-on the contrarily we need to associate our goals with fun… it is about bringing joy. For this to happen, we need to bring vibrancy, connection, and meaning to our goals.

My key takeaway from the book is that, when I feel like I am not moving forward, I will need to check on my progress through the numbers. All our aspirations can be quantified and put in numbers. The most important thing is to track those numbers however small they are and keep on improving day in day out making sure we celebrate the small wins.

This is in line with my preaching that we must have Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHGs) although we will need to break them into smaller units. Once this is done, our task will be monitoring the achievements of the small pieces as the bigger ones will take care of themselves. Goals are like running a marathon and not a sprint, therefore, we are more likely to reach our goals if we go one step at a time. They will eventually build up and we will become winners. 

Another insight that I think is useful is to know that motivation takes different forms. For instance, it could be fear or reward motivation. The clearer the motivation is for you, the more likely you are going to achieve the goal.

“Progress is quiet. It whispers. Perfectionism screams failure and hides progress.” — Jon Acuff