Finishing What You Start
Do you ever battle to complete the projects you begin, even when you have the best of intentions for finishing them?
This is not uncommon. Fortunately, you can take some simple steps to enhance the likelihood of being the type of individual who finishes what you start.
1. Produce a Plan
The initial step to more success in finishing a task is to begin with a plan. Having it in your head is not enough. The plan needs to be written down. It's easy to start something you're excited about, but not consider all the work and obstacles you may encounter. Take the time to create a written plan. This process will better prepare you for what it's going to take to complete it.
2. Plan for Pauses
If you find yourself overly frustrated or beginning to resent the task that you have been working with for so long, take a time-out. This break can help you reset your mind. You could also use this pause to identify and address some of the obstacles you are facing. But make certain that you establish an endpoint to your break. Doing this helps hold you to starting back up and not simply abandoning the job.
3. Plan for Perks
Set small goals with rewards. Break your job or task into small, mini-goals. As you complete each one of these, reward yourself with some pleasurable perk. It will help keep you on task, and you'll see that you are making tangible progress. This progression will do marvels to keep you motivated as you work on the project. And when the task is completely finished, give yourself a bigger reward.
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When your next great idea for a new project or goal hits you, stop before you start and make time to produce a plan that is: written down; has breaks built into it, and chunked into mini-goals with rewards along the path to completion. Taking these three actions, you'll be much more likely to finish what you started.
Resources
If you're interested in some proven systems & tactics to finish what you start, check out
Disclosure
Some of my blog posts contain links to products. These are products I use personally or come highly recommended from sources I trust. I would recommend them to my own family. At no extra cost to you, the product creator gives my nonprofit organization a small commission if you click one of these link on my blog and purchase something. This is a win-win-win situation where I get to recommend great products to my readers who benefit tremendously from these products when they buy. My organization receives a small compensation to support our mission and the business gains a new customer. And you pay the same exact price you would pay if you had found the product yourself!
I try to plan for failure. This is a hard skill to develop because when a plan is made the planner has to imagine things going wrong and how to overcome them, like oops ran out of money because the planned budget was insufficient.