Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

by Jon Acuff

Statistically you’ve got the same shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina as you do at finishing your goals.

The less that people aimed for perfect, the more productive they became.

Chronic starters can become consistent finishers.

you want to finish, you’ve got to do all that you can to get rid of your perfectionism right out of the gate.

have fun, cut your goal in half, choose what things you’ll bomb, and a few other actions you won’t see coming at first.

We tend to put too much emphasis on beginnings.

This is the first lie that perfectionism tells you about goals: Quit if it isn’t perfect.

doing something imperfectly won’t kill you.

developing tolerance for imperfection is the key factor in turning chronic starters into consistent finishers.

Day 2 is when I see the largest drop-off.

The day after perfect is what separates finishers from starters.

perfectionism dies slowly. It’s persistent and particularly dangerous because it masquerades as excellence.

The moment you create that goal, you’ve made a silent promise. When you don’t finish it, you’ve broken that promise. You’ve lied to the person you spend the most time with. You.

If you quit enough times, quitting is no longer just a possibility when you start a new goal, it’s your identity, and that feels terrible.

finishing something you care about is the best feeling in the world.

The problem is that perfectionism magnifies your mistakes and minimizes your progress.

Perfectionism also messes us up by making us aim too high.

The harder you try to be perfect, the less likely you’ll accomplish your goals.

At the beginning, when our excitement is through the roof, we think our achievement must be as well. This is why people who have never run one hundred yards will tell me they are going to run a marathon. I will gently ask them, “Have you ever run a half marathon? Have you ever run a 5K? What about a K? Have you ever run just a single K? Get yourself a tiny little medal?”

we tend to set goals that are foolishly optimistic. Scientists call this “planning fallacy,”

if you dream too big at the start, you curse your finish.

Most of us believe the old adage, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” but that’s not how life really works.

“Cut your goal in half” is not the kind of thing you’d see painted on the wall of a gym. It felt like a cheat, but it worked.

Those who cut their goal in half increased their performance from past similar goal-related challenges on average by over 63 percent.

Goals are a marathon, not a sprint.

if I can get you to do a little one month and win, you’re more likely to do a little more the next month and win even more.

Some goals are difficult to cut in half. For those, don’t cut them in half; give yourself more time.

It’s Almost Never Now or Never

Most New Year’s resolutions are actually January resolutions.

Cutting your goal in half is Kryptonite for perfectionism.

Choose What to Bomb

The only way to accomplish a new goal is to feed it your most valuable resource: time. And what we never like to admit is that you don’t just give time to something, you take it from something else. To be good at one thing you have to be bad at something else. Perfectionism’s third lie is: You can do it all. I’m here to tell you that you can’t.

You only have two options right now. Attempt more than is humanly possible and fail. Choose what to bomb and succeed at a goal that matters.

In his book Two Awesome Hours, Josh Davis calls this strategic incompetence.

Spend a few minutes thinking through your day and label a couple of items you’re giving time to.

Just say no. No long explanation. No apology. No justification. No.

The stress of perfectionism gives way to laughter as you list the myriad things you’ll no longer accept shame about.

Make It Fun if You Want It Done

Perfectionism believes that the harder something is, the more miserable something is, the better it is.

The fourth lie it tells you is: Fun doesn’t count.

Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-Bound Those might be helpful attributes of a goal, but they sure are boring. Those are all words you could use to describe cauliflower.

Regardless of the type of goal, my belief that goals must be difficult and joyless will wreck me at every turn.

Fun not only counts, but it’s necessary if you want to beat perfectionism and get to the finish.

joyless goals fail.

some of the most outwardly successful people you know are some of the saddest.

choosing a goal you believe will be enjoyable increases your likelihood of satisfaction by 31 percent.

The second benefit to picking something you enjoy is that it increases performance success by 46 percent.

the shortcut isn’t “find something fun”; the shortcut is “make it fun if you want it done.”

You have to do the work of making it fun.

“What’s something I really enjoy doing that I could use to serve someone?”