Good Starters, Poor Finishers
A description for no one and almost everyone
I can conveniently place a bet that everybody knows at least someone sitting comfortably at this table — a good starter and a poor finisher.
And maybe you are just that person.
Think of all the activities you have ever jumped on, starting from the books you wanted to own, only to have it, and not read beyond the first few pages. What about that movie you couldn’t wait to see but now begs for attention?
Is it the eating plan and exercise routine you gave up on after few days? Or do we talk about the online classes and courses? Maybe we should focus on the ideas you inked in your little journal that never saw the light of day.
There are just too many abandoned items, and it comes with a terrible feeling — if you’ve ever had to think about it.
Everyone holds a guilt card of starting something new and leaving it unfinished, which may not be so much of a deal. There are certain projects we started only to discover that the path wasn’t ours to take and before so much effort goes down the drain, it was best to turn to another path.
This up here is fine and admirable.
Do you know what it isn’t?
Starting what you actually should be doing or have decided to do or is required of you to do and never seeing it to finish. It doesn’t appear to be a bug until an unhealthy habit stems out of it.
If you are the kind that pays close attention, you would realize that you hardly get anything completed or even well at that.
What about poor starters and poor finishers? No doubts such people may exist but a topic for another time.
While pointing fingers can be enjoyable, I have enjoyed sitting at this table for a time, and deciding to retire from the seat was an overdue action.
Well, I’m writing about it now.
First, here’s a confession…
Setting off on tasks, projects, and ideas is one thing I’m good at doing…I mean good. Call it a strength area and I’ll give you the tick card to tell you’re right. I’m that good at it.
The one not too good part:
I enjoyed doing this until I started to lose count on the things I started and even had issues managing through the ones I could remember. Too many interests and activities, right? I’d say yes.
This has to be the worst part:
In the end, I had more unfinished projects than accomplished ones, not because I was precisely idle.
It may have been satisfying if I returned to them, but in most cases, I never did.
A question to ask is why?
Perhaps you are now asking yourself why you backed out of a profitable journey you chose to embark on. Most times, we don’t have convincing answers but here’s what I figured.
Starting a project or a task is very exciting especially when new ideas are involved. You set off on a speed boat with this incredible energy that screams, oh yeah! “Here’s what you should be doing.”
Is it the motivation? You don’t have to beg for it. There’s more than enough at this stage. I recognize the obsession attached to new ideas and the temporal blindness to could-be distractions.
Sooner, the enthusiasm starts to die off as the activity becomes more of hard work, only for you to quit on that and jump on the next exciting thing.
Starting a task or project and not seeing it through feels like what never happened, and the initial efforts and resources used may become wasted.
Does this describe your experiences? Maybe or not. However, if it does, it’s amazing that you can come to terms with a part of you, you’ve been struggling with.
Why you start things and rarely finish them
- You like to start too many things without proper planning or thinking and it could also be the shiny object syndrome.
- Something scares you about completing an assignment or project.
- Scheduling is not in your books, and that’s why plans not fitted will hardly cross your mind. And even when it does, you carefully push it to the next day, until the morrow never comes.
- You give up too soon when drudgery is involved.
There could be more reasons and most times, you know well those reasons.
How to finish what you start
One day, while reading through a UI/UX design article by Nicole Saidy, I came across 4D’s used to explain phases in becoming a creative. I am no designer but I could relate the article to my challenge, so I adopted the four and started using them in my engagements where applicable. I’d be relating them to this post on how to finish what you’ve started successfully.
- Discover
- Define
- Develop
- Deliver
Discover
You can agree there are a whole lot of activities and engagements that appear interesting to you even when you know you can’t be involved in all. It is also not so hard to always discover the things we want or like to do based on our interests and aptitudes.
What is the next idea or project you want to launch? What is it going to cost you? Is it profitable and worth the attention? You’ll require some honesty to yourself here as to why you want to do what you want to do.
Define
After discovering what you want to do, the next thing to think about is defining how you want to achieve it. You should come up with a work plan and fix potential deadlines that fit your schedule. The plan, however, should be realistic so that it is doable, and you can be sure you’re not setting yourself up for another failure.
Develop
What exactly are you developing? An attitude and culture.
In a bid to see that you finish assignments and projects you have started, you need to grow an attitude that says, “I want to finish, and nothing must linger”. You want to develop a culture that has nothing repeating itself continuously on your to-do list. You want to have that attitude that commits to meeting deadlines and resist the lure of excuses.
Deliver
If you can successfully engage the first three phases, the feeling of completing a task is priceless, and that is delivery. Truly an assignment can be completed but done anyhow but personally, that has never cut the mark for me.
“If it must be done, then it must be done well.”
No doubts, shortcomings may be present due to several possible factors but the results that come with giving your best are never synonymous with just doing it.
Conclusion
Your life should not be a dumping ground for bits and pieces of abandoned projects everywhere — it doesn’t make you the great individual you admire to be.
While deciding to finish assignments might be an easy talk, how about trying hard to see that you do — that’s doing the works and you can be sure of finishing one thing, you ever started.
Make it a routine, and you’ll soon be counting several things you started and pushed on to finish successfully — that is exactly what counts!
