If it is true that not finishing what we start is, by itself, the biggest reason why we so often fail to achieve our goals then, the question becomes, how do we adopt The Habit of Finishing What You Start when we have so conditioned and accustomed ourselves to the disappointment of not finishing, that each time we begin anew we do so with a diminished expectation of completion?
The Habit of Finishing What You Start is just that, a habit, defined by Dictionary.com as meaning, “an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.”
The key word in that definition is “almost.” This allows us to understand that just because a behaviour has been regularly followed in the past does not mean we need follow it ever again.
Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States famously stated, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
In those words lie the secret to adopting the power that resides within The Habit of Finishing What You Start for it is persistence that gets us out of bed when the challenges of the day seem insurmountable and it is persistence that pulls us back up on our feet when all we feel like doing is staying on the ground.
It is persistence that keeps us going against all odds and it is persistence that empowers us to ignore the well-intentioned who constantly tell us why it cannot be done.
The fear of failure has prevented many from ever leaving the starting gate for they fail to understand that there is no shame in failure and that the true test of the strength of our being is to embrace failure as a teacher that emboldens us to continue pressing forward until the goal we seek is in our hands.
Not finishing what we start is second only to not starting at all as an assured, guaranteed way of never failing and, as many of us have realized, the price of not finishing is often the crushing disappointment of shattered dreams.
The Habit of Finishing What You Start means making an unflinching promise to yourself that regardless of the hazards, hardships and hellish difficulties of the journey, you will stay the course until you reach your destination. Each time we fail to do this we are training ourselves to absorb giving up as an acceptable behaviour and the danger in doing this is that we will reach the point where we won’t even begin the journey because we will have convinced ourselves of its futility.
Those who have achieved great accomplishments have never done so by choosing to quit before their vision became a reality, and if you ever have a chance to speak with those who have accomplished great things they will invariably tell you that they did so because not finishing was never an option.
There is an important consideration to remember if you choose to make The Habit of Finishing What You Start an immovable part of your life. It is this: if you “try it for a while,” “dabble in it,” or “play at it,” you most assuredly will quit long before you finish.
The Habit of Finishing What You Start means being all in, committed, resolute, determined and hungry.
And if you are all of these you own the The Habit of Finishing What You Start because not finishing what you start will never enter your consciousness.
And there is no grander feeling than that of great accomplishment achieved despite blood, sweat and tears.
Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.
P.S.
Finally, after months in the works, my company’s new website is up. Please take a moment and visit www.strategicpathways.net . Browse through this site and then click on the “Contact Us” tab or tellmemore@strategicpathways.net and let me know what you think.
Your opinion truly means a lot to me.
Thank you.
