They strive for it with great enthusiasm, but give up everything halfway. Start a business, but never finish it. Several times in different articles I emphasized that many successful people have the habit of finishing everything. And not successful ones, there are many undertakings but little use. Common situation?
How to achieve a goal without giving up everything halfway. How to finish things you start
So how to achieve the goal, not to go halfway, how to bring things to their logical conclusion? The following 10 tips should help you do just that.
1. Choose “your” goals. Be responsible when choosing your future activity
When you choose a goal or a new activity, it is important that you like it, so that you are interested in working towards the desired result. Very often you gave up everything halfway, because your “first love” was quickly exhausted, and what you needed to do turned out to be a tedious activity you didn’t like.
The way, if you are not sure that you will finish what you started, is to take a tentative step towards it. Do it a little, a little, in agreement - find out what kind of prospects are opening up, and only then decide whether you need it or not.
2. Assess whether you have the strength and means to achieve the desired result
In paragraph 1 it was said about liking/disliking working to reach the finish line. At this point: maybe / not possible. This is logical; if you overestimated your strength, it means you didn’t reach the end. The target was too difficult.
To avoid such a mistake: use the method (rules for setting goals) and preliminary planning of what needs to be done. This will help identify all the pitfalls. Which may not be possible to get around.
3. Estimate how much time it takes to achieve the goal
If you have completed step 2, then you will have a rough action plan. The next question is: approximately how long will each such action take?
A situation may arise when you do not have time to complete everything. This is important to consider.
4. Stop striving for perfection
First, everything must be thoroughly prepared, then every step must be verified and precise, every intermediate result must be as perfect as possible... If you agreed with the previous sentence, congratulations, you will never complete your task!
If you strive for perfection, which has no limit, how can you complete even one action?
5. Put a “door to the exit from the business”
Consider the option when you have the right not to complete what you started. Paradox? It seems to describe how to complete, and not how to complete... Not at all. Firstly, why should you undermine your health with tasks and goals that turn out to be impossible? Secondly, having an option to get out of a case, this case has a greater chance of being realized (what can I say - psychological things of our subconscious).
6. Focus often on the end result - the goal.
Brian Tracy, a well-known Western motivator, particularly focuses on this point. He advises every morning, using , to remember your ultimate goal and think about it. This would be perfect.
The essence of the action: so that the goal remains desired throughout the entire path to.
7. Follow the path of greatest pleasure
The path to the goal can be short and fast, boring or interesting, labor-intensive or simple. You just need to remember: there are always other options to achieve the desired goal.
So choose the most interesting ways for you to solve problems and goals that will lead to the final result.
There are those things that need to be done, although they are not at all “fun” at all. In this case, there are two options. First: leave them for later, doing only what you like at first. Then, having done your favorite activity, you will be charged with enthusiasm and the desire to complete the boring action.
The second way, diametrically opposite: do the most uninteresting things first, and save the “delicious” things for later.
8. Establish feedback on your actions, tracking the success of those
10. Don’t “force” yourself if the work doesn’t go well.
And if you have set a goal, and your desire is great, and point 5 is not acceptable, you want to achieve your cherished dream at all costs, but things are not going well. Don’t mock yourself, tell yourself that you will definitely achieve it, but perhaps now you don’t have enough: either knowledge, experience, strength, time, or you need to rest...
You can allow yourself a vacation from business for a couple of days or weeks, completely abstracting yourself from achieving the goal (but only completely, not a little, not working, not thinking). And when you return to the necessary actions, you will be surprised how easily previously difficult problems will begin to be solved...
All the best! Always bring good deeds to the end!
Can't sleep when you're thinking about unfinished tasks? These “blanks” of unimplemented ideas, unfinished plans, deferred urgentities accumulate and forever remain dead weight. A little effort - and you will write it down as an asset.
“If you’ve done the job, go for a walk safely,” these words were repeated to many of us by our parents since childhood. However, our collection of unfinished tasks is constantly being replenished with new ones. However, it is unlikely that there is a person in the world, even the most intelligent one, who does not have “tails” of planned but not carried out deeds “hanging over his soul.”
We promise ourselves to submit a report on time, learn a new language, go jogging, and finally finish reading books that are specially placed in a visible place so as not to forget about them. And this is not a complete list of things that we have started but not finished, or that we have not even started yet. And everyone probably has a similar list.
Hoping to finally get rid of such a burden with the help of higher powers, some write New Year's notes listing their tasks for the next year and put them under the tree or burn them. But firm promises to start “from the new year”, “from the first day”, “from tomorrow” help few people. Most likely, no one.
What prevents us from parting with the heap of unfinished business? There must be some solutions that will bring us closer to the goal and make this path not so difficult?
Of course, with the wave of a magic wand, thanks to a goldfish, or “at the behest of a pike, according to my desire,” things are done only in fairy tales. When we make a list of things we need to do and then cross them off as we're ready, we structure our plans and present them more clearly. And this makes a certain sense. But then, as the song says, “everything is in your hands.”
Perhaps the following tips will be useful to someone.
1. Find motivation
Not a single person will move if he does not know why he needs it. Someone noted that there are two main factors for people: the desire to gain and the fear of losing.
When we can't bring ourselves to finish something, we think about the process. And he often makes us bored, if not disgusted. We internally resist because we don’t want to leave the familiar. It’s so cozy and warm in a chair in front of the TV or monitor screen with a sandwich - why get dressed and go out into the cold to go to the gym? Why dive into a boring report if you can do it tomorrow?
At these moments we should think not about the process, but about the result. If we submit the report on time, we will receive a bonus. Let's go for a run - we'll cheer up, our mood and complexion will improve. Let's go to the gym and get a slim figure and excellent athletic shape. Plus, the knowledge that we have overcome our weaknesses greatly increases self-esteem.
And vice versa, when a necessary but unfinished task hangs over us like a heavy burden, we feel our own weakness and lose self-respect.
2. Follow the “20-minute” rule
Many people have probably noticed that the most difficult thing is to start doing something. You can put off repairs, cleaning, preparing for an exam, etc. as much as you like, but once you start, it’s hard to stop yourself.
This conclusion is not at all original. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod, who lived before our era, wrote that “the beginning is half the battle.” “He who started it has already done half the work,” considered the ancient Roman poet Horace. The ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, familiar to us from school, also noticed that in any task the most difficult thing is to start it, and then all that remains is to complete what has been started. “Only the first step is worth something,” says the French proverb.
How can you force yourself to take this first step? We remember the “20-minute rule” and tell ourselves: “I will devote only 20 minutes to this task.” Set a timer or set an alarm. It will take about five minutes to get involved in the process, and we begin to work. We managed to “get into the creative flow,” so we continue to work. It didn’t work out, it didn’t go well – in 20 minutes we’ll get something done, and then we’ll switch to another task. Over a week, daily 20 minutes will amount to almost 2 and a half hours. During this time, having mastered the technique, you can... And excuses that there is no time make no sense. In the same way, you can successfully complete any task.
Don’t forget to record a positive experience - look at your reflection in the mirror and praise yourself.
3. Kill the perfectionist and procrastinator in yourself
Some people need to gather their strength for a long time before starting a task. The work process, which takes a lot of time and energy from them, scares them, so they evade it in every possible way: they are distracted by extraneous matters, looking for excuses for themselves, postponing things to tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. These are procrastinators (from the English procrastination - “postponing”). There are several reasons, including the fear of not being able to cope with a new task or business. Procrastinators do not organize their work correctly, so most of their energy is wasted. On a problem that someone would solve in an hour, they will struggle several times longer. Naturally, next time they will subconsciously avoid difficulties.
One of the reasons why procrastinators “hang” on one task for a long time is the desire to do it perfectly, and on the first try. They meticulously work out every detail, not allowing themselves to move forward until they perfect each stage of the work. And this is (from the Latin perfectus - “perfect”). With their meticulousness they are capable of exhausting themselves physically and mentally, leading to a nervous breakdown.
We are fighting procrastination and perfectionism - the main culprits of the heap of unfinished tasks that have accumulated in us. And we remember that almost no one manages to complete the task 100% right away. It is noticed that with the first approach, the share and quality of the work done is approximately 80%. With the second - again 80% of the remaining. Therefore, there is no point in postponing it until better times: we take it and do as much as we can and as best we can, and the next time we finally bring it to fruition.
4. We don’t let anyone in on our plans.
There is an opinion that, having conceived some business, we should inform our close friends about it. As if this will allow us not to stop halfway, because otherwise we will be ashamed in front of them. Perhaps the wish works for some.
However, there is also the opposite opinion: the voiced desires are not destined to come true. The saying goes about the same thing: “If you want to make God laugh, tell us about your plans.” Many have noticed: as soon as you let someone in on your plans, everything goes awry. We become uninterested, things lose their former meaning for us, and we no longer make efforts to finally finish what we started.
This phenomenon has interested psychologists. In particular, Vera Mahler, after a series of experiments, came to the conclusion that our brain perceives voiced plans as an already accomplished reality. Therefore, in order not to abandon the matter halfway, it is better to keep your plans to yourself. “Don’t talk about your plans if you still hope to fulfill them,” psychologists say.
5. Remember the 72-hour rule
In accordance with this rule, if we have not brought a new idea to life within 72 hours, then we will never do this.
Do we really need to do that thing that we have come up with for ourselves, but for which we have no soul? Maybe we don’t need this language, this book, this sweater that takes three years to knit, this sport? Maybe cross them off your list of unfinished tasks and not suffer, doing something that is really interesting?
People are divided into two categories: some are afraid to start, while others start actively, throwing themselves into something like a whirlpool, but don’t know how to bring things to the end. If this is your problem, here are some tips for you.
Why can't we do this?
It's easy to get excited about an idea. It will be much more difficult to live it constantly. Many people, after an active start, slow down quickly and eventually stop.
So why can’t you finish what you started?
Firstly, we don’t know how to plan time, which is why we don’t have time to get everything done.
Secondly, we go beyond our own capabilities, both material and physical, and psychological.
The next reason is not taking the matter too seriously.
Finally, fear and lack of interest in the matter hinder us. Attention, the question is: how to cope with all this and how to learn to bring the matter to the end.
Rule one. We set ourselves a big and serious goal. If you want, we take the dream on a pencil. Otherwise, all ideas will dissolve in the haze of everyday life. Roughly speaking, you need to learn English in order to get into a foreign graduate school, and not because everyone else is learning it.
Be sure to remind yourself why you need it. Just be prepared to walk through the rainbow to find a pot of coins at its edge.
In order to move towards your goal more confidently, it is useful to postpone doubts indefinitely. It is fear and doubt that prevents you from completing everything. So, fears usually revolve around something that does not exist, so you don’t have to succumb to their provocations.
Stop self-abuse
It takes effort to complete a task and move towards a goal. But effort does not mean violence.
Coercion is the shortest way to abandoning any business. It’s just that everyone has mood swings, which means forcing yourself and forcing yourself to do something when you’re in a bad mood is a very bad idea. It will be easier to motivate yourself. If you decide to build a body, then you don’t need to force yourself to go to the gym with words like “get moving, you lazy ass” or something like that. This way you will not add so much enthusiasm to yourself as self-hatred. Just remember how your mood lifts in the gym and it will be easier to get ready and go to training, even despite the rain and fatigue.
There is no need to rush. If you plunge into something new headlong and try to master everything quickly, you will burn out faster. So, if things don't work out right away, move gradually and confidently.
Find inspiration and encourage yourself
Some people are inspired and invigorated by music, others by a walk with friends. All this has a right to exist. Look for what really gives you strength.
Connect more with those who have already done it
This means your dream business. In order to believe that anything is possible, you need to communicate more with those who have already achieved results on the path you have chosen.
Before the appearance of Olympic champions, no one knew that you could run a kilometer in record time, jump a quadruple jump, etc. Now it seems like a common thing.
If you know that someone could do it, then you become more confident that you can do it too. And if there is a clear goal and there is confirmation that it is feasible, then the so-called reticular activating system is activated, helping to determine what exactly you need and what you need to distract from.
You will also need a teacher or a group of like-minded people. You can also teach others. It’s not even that we remember more information this way, it’s just that we inspire other people and light a fire in them, and this prevents us from burning out too.
Make a bet
At least with yourself. We go off a diet easily because we know we have nothing to lose. And if there is some kind of penalty, it will be easier to reach the victory. Find your case manager or one of the apps. If you haven’t fulfilled the plan, transfer a certain amount of money to a charitable foundation. It is also important that for every negative motivator (for example, a fine), you have three positive ones. That is, three carrots should be attached to one stick. Calculate proportions.
Take your mind off yourself
Let's return to goals again. Of course you set goals for yourself. But it’s good if they are not too self-centered. It’s good if it includes responsibility for your family and friends, and the fulfillment of your dream will have a good effect on the people dear to you. But setting goals to prove something to someone doesn’t make sense either. This will definitely not allow you to improve your own skills. Just think about the positive impact your goal will have on your loved ones and focus on that.
Ride the time
You don't really need a to-do list. It is better to make a schedule based on the calendar. Guided by it, try to break any goal into small periods of time. You also need to choose one with the highest priority among all your tasks and goals. Concentrate on it. The main thing is to be a busy person all the time, because this accustoms the brain to order, and therefore makes you more persistent.
Don't be afraid to have illusions
They are also material, which means they can turn into reality. It’s just that if you perceive reality too objectively, then you won’t be able to set goals. At least the big ones and those that you want to complete. You understand that if you want to become an emperor in your state, you need to want to conquer the entire planet. And it will be easier to complete any task if you know that this is just the beginning of something larger.
Think of your business as a game
It will be much more interesting and exciting to complete your task if you perceive this task as a quest with various tasks: break yesterday's record, do something that previously seemed impossible to you, beat a competitor. Spend at least 20 minutes of the time allocated for your dream task in game mode. Prepare small prizes for each victory. If something doesn’t work out, then try to beat yourself and do better next time. Remember that if you do your life's work, you do it for yourself. And for your own sake, you should not spare effort or give up.
Researchers have proven that disciplined people with willpower lead healthier lifestyles, have fewer financial problems and are less likely to break the law. Those who deny themselves the satisfaction of spontaneous desires feel much better and happier. By the way, according to the head of the study, willpower can be trained like a muscle.
But how can you force yourself to always finish things and cultivate willpower in order to always be successful? Tells Yitzhak Pintosevich, expert in systemic personality development, neuro-linguistic programming trainer, author of books and trainings for major international corporations.
The extra mile
Yulia Garmatina, AiF: Psychologists often advise: in order to complete a task, you need to have a goal, imagine in detail what you are trying to achieve. Many people are prevented from finishing what they started by failures. Sometimes you just don’t have the willpower to continue, you give up...
Isaac Pintosevich: At the moment when you give up, you always need to take a small step, not give up what you started, rest a little and continue. Because next time you will have to start over, but here part of the path, albeit microscopic, has already been passed. It seems easier to choose a new path. By changing your strategy in the hope that another path will be easier, you waste time and energy. There will be difficulties in any case.
- To become successful, you advise your students to go the so-called extra mile - that is, to always do a little more than is expected of you. But often initiative is punished. Will it turn out that you will do a little more, but no one will need it?- Sam Walton, the founder of the largest chain of stores in the United States, recruited people for his team this way: he went to other stores and saw which of the sellers was the most active. He invited such a person to his place on the best terms. If you ask people on the streets who they would hire - the one who does what is needed, or the one who does a little more, 100% of respondents will choose the second option. When you do a little more, this is your accumulated potential, even if no one appreciates it now. Sooner or later this will come in handy.
Don't listen to anyone
What about common sense? Sometimes it is he who resists willpower if you realize that your efforts are in vain.
If you look at people who achieve success, they do not have this edge that can be called common sense. They don't listen to others. In life, as in sports: there are champion athletes and there are athletes. The common sense of a champion and an athlete are two different things. Decide on a general concept of life. If this is the concept of a champion, then, despite injuries, exhaustion, and other people’s predictions, move forward, see the job to the end. If you are an athlete, you want a calmer, more measured life, then this is what you need to do - be careful not to harm your health, and do not try to set records.
A champion cannot be good for everyone. They will envy him, they will scold him, he will have to sacrifice something. An athlete can afford to spend energy trying to please everyone.
- They say that if you can’t do something, it means you don’t need it. Do you agree?
- It is not true. If it doesn't work, then you're doing something wrong. But this in no way means that you don’t need it. Thomas Edison made several thousand attempts before he invented the light bulb. Writer Joanne Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, was rejected by the first ten publishing houses. If she had not gone to the eleventh, she would not have become a billionaire. Jack London Three hundred (!) times they refused to publish his works.- Another common piece of advice: don’t think about problems. Is this possible?
Yes. You need to think not about problems, but about ways to solve them. Not about what has already happened, but about how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Focus on goals that will avoid problems. If a person has lost his wallet, he does not need to complain about the injustice of the world. You need to think about how to avoid this next time - this is the first goal, how you can return the money - this is the second goal, how to switch to bank cards so as not to lose cash - this is another goal.
How to learn to control the situation?
A person with a strong will knows how to manage not only his own affairs, but also his feelings. Agree: if you are in a bad mood, everything falls out of hand, and things don’t work out. These exercises will help you keep your emotions under control.
1. Get rid of negativity
To do this, join the game “Think Positively for 21 Days.” Put a thin rubber band on your hand. Your task is to make decisions for 21 days only in a positive mood. Lost? Slap your arm with a rubber band until it hurts. Replace the rubber band on the other hand and start the 21st day over again.
Continue until you have gone 21 days without negative thoughts. This is a very effective exercise.2. Say goodbye to the badmood
An exercise will help with this: for everything that happens to you with a “minus” sign, you find three other events in your life with a huge “plus” sign. For example: “I lost my wallet. But I got a promotion at work. But I'm healthy. But soon I’ll go to the cinema to see an interesting film.” Do it for at least 7 days.
3. Learn to be honestWith myself
The point of the exercise is to learn to separate facts and figures from interpretation. For example, you say: “I’m tired, I can’t get anything done today.” Where are you tired? In what part of the body? To what extent: can’t you unload the cars or even get up from the couch? What if you were paid a thousand dollars now? Strength would be found immediately! It turns out that “tired” is a lie. Rate your feelings on a 10-point scale. For example, 10 means you are so tired that you are lying motionless, and 5 means you still have potential.
Internet survey
What do you do when you're nervous?
- Nothing - 36% (1353 votes)
- I eat sweets - 21% (771 votes)
- I drink valerian - 18% (678 votes)
- I smoke, drink alcohol - 17% (615 votes)
- I bite my nails - 8% (306 votes)
Unfinished business prevents you from living a peaceful life and sometimes makes you think about your insolvency. How to learn to complete a task?
How to learn to get things done
Even if you spend a lot of time setting goals and breaking them down into individual steps and tasks, you still find it difficult to force yourself to complete your tasks until the goal reaches its successful outcome. Often, it is much easier to cross the starting line than the finishing line. You will learn how to learn how to complete a task in the following steps:
- Learning from our mistakes
To move forward to your highest achievements, you must first draw and learn the lessons from your unfinished business. If you feel psychological heaviness caused by unfinished business, you need to forgive yourself for this and promise yourself that this will not happen again.
- Abandoning strategies that have no future
Pay attention to the ways in which you tried to get things done. If you have already used this method several times and it does not work, or it works sometimes, then do not use it at all.
Often people just go in circles, sticking to the same strategies that don’t work, and live for years in the hope that everything will change soon. Understand, nothing will work.
- Realize your ability to complete things
Try to realize that no matter what business you take on, no matter what goal you pursue, you always have the ability to complete things on time. After all, you are not trying to achieve something impossible, but rather the opposite. There are always ways in our lives to complete things to the end, complete all projects and achieve the desired results.
- Always be ready to handle difficult things
It's easy to just say that you have the ability to get things done. Anyone can say that. But the real ability is that you are ready to do all the dirty work. But this work can significantly slow down the pace of your movement. And this, believe me, makes many doubt their own abilities.
But if you have the desire to get things done, then you will have to accept the presence of hard work and decide to do it no matter how difficult it is. This is the key difference between the ability to start a business and bring it to its logical conclusion.
- Don't let anyone or anything distract you from your work.
- Make it a habit to finish everything you start. Don't take on a new business until you complete the project you started.
- If you cannot implement it, abandon the implementation of the plan completely, but do not leave it in limbo.
- Try to do right away what can be done right away. Request by mail, phone call, notification of a change of plans - do it right away. Firstly, by postponing the matter until “after lunch” or a smoke break, you can simply forget about it and let your colleague down. Secondly, putting off small tasks adds up to an alarming feeling of time pressure, which gives rise to unnecessary fussiness.
- Difficult and routine tasks are best performed in the morning and without interruption. Any distraction from the task requires a new immersion in the task, which will again require time and effort. Save your energy - do the work in large parts at once.
- Keep your promises or don't make them at all.
- Do the work quickly, don't drag out the process, speed up. Try to complete your work faster before it gets boring and turns into a headache.
And further
- Don't sit around waiting for perfect conditions. If you constantly wait for ideal conditions, you will probably never take action. There will always be something that bothers you. Either it’s not the right time, or there’s a lot of competition, etc. in the real world there is no ideal time to start things. You must learn to act and be able to resolve issues.
Ideas by themselves do not bring success. Ideas are very important, but they are only valuable when they are applied. If you are full of ideas, and most importantly, you believe in them, then you need to act.
Take action to drive fear away from yourself. Everyone probably knows that the scariest part of speaking in front of an audience is standing around waiting for your turn. But as soon as you start talking, the excitement will disappear. Action is the way to drive away fear. It’s difficult, of course, to act for the first time. When you take action, eliminate fear and build your success with confidence.
Live in the moment. Focus on what you are doing now. No need to worry about what you should have done two days ago or what you should have done in a week. If you think about it a lot, nothing will work out.
Be an organized person before you venture out on your own. Perhaps initiative is just the trait that company managers so desire. So don't let yourself lose the initiative. When you have a new idea, implement it without command from above. You will definitely be noticed when they understand how seriously you take your work and the company’s activities. those at the top don't wait to be told what to do. Therefore, if you want to be close to them, act independently.
As soon as you learn to be collected and stop putting things off until “later,” you will be able to implement any project, no matter how large-scale it may be.