“The merit in action lies in finishing it to the end.” – Genghis Khan
Starting hard and fast is easy. Anyone can do that. The eagerness and enthusiasm that brews and bubbles over during the goal-setting stage is fun and exciting. The promise of achieving your goals will motivate you to get started.
But after that, within a few weeks, the fun will turn into a grind… which becomes dull and dreary once the initial burst of motivation fades into nothingness.
That’s why most people can start fast, but very few will finish strong. The majority will quit… and 2 very detrimental outcomes will present themselves.
Firstly, once you quit, it’s over. You’ll not achieve the goal that you badly wanted. It’s not going to happen by accident.
Secondly, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. Every time you make a promise to yourself and you fail to keep that promise, you subconsciously lose respect for yourself.
You can only respect yourself when you see a goal through to completion. You must finish what you start. Here’s how you go about doing it…
- Be clear about what you want
Your time and energy are finite. You can’t do it all and have it all. You need to streamline things and narrow your goals down to the ones that mean the most to you.
Now you’ll be able to focus all your efforts on a couple of goals that matter rather than dispersing your efforts wantonly and seeing no results.
- What resources will you need?
Next, you’ll need to ask yourself what is required of you. Thinking of starting a new business?
How much capital will you need? How much time can you spend on your business daily? If you have a day job, will you have the energy to work on your business once you get home? Or should you wake up earlier and spend time on your side hustle before work?
You need to answer these questions first and be prepared for what will be required of you. In this way, it will not be a rude shock when you discover the amount of effort you need to expend.
- Pace yourself
Initially, you should go slow. If all you can spend is an hour a day on your side business, an hour will do. Try not to overdo things by sleeping less or resorting to other harsh measures.
If you make it too difficult, you’ll be unable to sustain your efforts at this level. You’ll experience burnout or feel like you’ve failed yourself when you dread the work and procrastinate.
Success is a marathon and not a sprint.
- Do the needful
One of the best philosophies you can adopt is to ‘do what matters when it matters’. That will mean focusing on the most important tasks and not procrastinating. This is especially important when you have a limited amount of time to work on your goals each day. Every minute matters.
- Excellence is better than perfection
Do the best job you can, but don’t expect perfection. In fact, perfectionism sets the stage for procrastination. Avoid it at all costs.
If you constantly expect things to be perfect, you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment. We’re all human and fallible. There will be days when you’re not as productive as you should have been. Or days when you slipped up.
Being a perfectionist will make you think that you’ve failed. The disappointment in yourself may make you quit. If you were aiming for excellence, you’d realize that one or two small slip-ups here and there is not the end of the world.
Adopt the Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’ where you strive to make small improvements daily. That’s all you need to do. Over time, your efforts will snowball and you’ll be much more successful.
- Track your progress
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll not end up anywhere. Track your progress and hold yourself accountable daily, weekly, and monthly.
Success in business does not happen by accident. It’s a process. When you embark on a journey to achieve a goal, always be ready to stay the course until completion – however long it takes.
If the goal is something you still hold dear, then you must persist. Once you’ve paid the price the goal demands of you (with time, effort, and sacrifice) – you’ll achieve success and can finally rest.
Until the next goal.
