Episode Transcript

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back.

So today I’m gonna start with a story. I used to do a lot of running. I don’t run as much as I used to, but I used to do a lot, and it was definitely a daily or every other day thing for a while, and this was years ago. But the point of this is, I would go out for a run, I would do three, four miles, five miles, whatever it is, and the run would go great. The run would be hard, the run would be difficult, and there’d be walls to overcome, but no matter how long I ran, and no matter what the distance was when I came up to the last half mile, and it even started the last mile, okay, in the last half mile to last quarter mile, finishing was always the hardest part, because you’re like, oh, cool, I’ve already run a good deal. All right, we could stop here, and it’s interesting how finishing is always the hardest part.

And it’s so much easier to start something than to finish it and finish it. Well, finishing, I think, is one of the hardest things to do in life, being able to actually complete what you set out to do is one of the harder things to actually get all the details done, especially when you get through most of what you’re trying to accomplish, you get to that last half mile, that last 20% of what you need to do, and you want to quit. And this is actually what a lot of people do, by the way, most people, they’ll go to 80% and they’ll say, hey, it’s done. It’s done. I’m done. I did a job. I did my job. I did what I was supposed to do. Cool, you only did 80% of what you were supposed to do.

And I’m bringing this up because if you can become very good at finishing you’ll do really well in life. If you can become very good at completing things, you’ll do really well. And if you want to know if you complete things or really move through things the way they should be, watch yourself. Do you start something new after you’re halfway through doing something? Do you change tasks? Do you stay on task? How well do you stay on task? How well do you actually do what you’re supposed to do? Or do you actually switch gears all the time?

And now, don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely a talent and a skill set to being able to switch gears, and a lot of that has more to do with management and leadership capabilities. But oftentimes, when we’re trying to sit down do the work, and then we won’t produce anything because we’re constantly switching gears. We need to get better at finishing, and if we get better at finishing, if you get better at finishing, life is going to get a lot better, because you actually don’t get anything done until you finish.

Every time you start something new, you just open up more work for yourself and you don’t finish. Finishing has everything to do with keeping promises. I’ve talked so much about keeping promises. You feel great when you keep your promises, when you deliver on time, when you exceed expectations. It’s like, Yes, we did a great job. Yes, this was awesome. When you don’t keep the promises, when you’re late, you feel horrible. Oh my gosh, I missed our deadline, and you there’s failure involved. And so it’s the same thing here. If you don’t finish and you don’t close out that job, you leave a perpetual door open, a failure, because it’s not completed, right? And then your deadline comes up, and you miss your deadline, and then you don’t keep your promises. And it’s a slow Chain Reaction down the line.

And it’s interesting, because I don’t think that most of us think this way, that man to really finish and close out well, if you can finish well, you are going to really win at life, whatever you’re doing, if you can finish. Well, finish doing what you’re doing. Finish this, this day with your family. Finish it. Well, right? Cool. Problems came up, frustrations. All right, are you gonna, just gonna get angry and then the day ‘s ruined? No. Finish, well, right? Finish. Well, in work, finish well, in your projects, finish well, in the things that you said you would do and set out to do. Okay, cool. If you get messed up along the way, right? You forget to do things. Oh, crap, I forgot to code that. I didn’t do this. I didn’t do that. Oh, man, I forgot to call this person back. Okay, finish well, call him back. Cool, you’re late. But finish the day out well, and if you can focus on finishing the day out, well, and I’m not talking about just finishing forever and doing all these other things, but just finish the day out well, you are going to do so well in life, you’ll watch everything change.

It’s interesting because if you don’t finish the day out well, you won’t finish the week well. And if you won’t finish the week well, you won’t finish the month well. And most things we do in life are not just day to day items. They are really a week out to a month out to a couple months out based on project size and based on, like the size of the amount of work that has to be accomplished in years.

So if you just focus on finishing out well and finishing the day well and just seeing if you finished well, you’ll watch a lot of things change, and it’s interesting. The two things in life that you really need to do ship just, just get momentum and then finish well. And if you master those two things, a lot will go well for you.

Anyways, guys, I’m out of time. I’ll catch you later. Peace.