In FINISH Give Yourself the Gift of Done Top 100 Leadership Speaker Jon Acuff takes readers on a fun journey toward understanding common roadblocks on the path to finishing the things we start. Each chapter introduces non-traditional approaches and solutions to adopt while battling perfectionism and learning how to navigate work and personal tasks through to successful completion. The author, a self-proclaimed starter, not a finisher, leaves us with actionable steps and a lot of LOLs.
The Day After Perfect.
“Imperfection is fast and when it arrives, we usually quit. That’s why the day after perfect is so important. This is the make-or-break day for every goal. This is the day after you skipped the gym. This is the day after you failed to get up early. This is the day after you decided the serving size for a whole box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is one. The day after perfect is what separates finishers from starters.”
The day after perfect is hard but it separates finishers from starters. When you’re over trying to be perfect, get back on track and keep working toward your goal.
Cut your goal by 50%
According to studies, 92% of New Year’s resolutions fail. Perfectionism supersizes our goals. Increase your performance dramatically by cutting your goals in half. When you’re up against quitting because the goal is too big, cutting that goal by 50% sets you up to finish the necessary steps to successfully reach it. This approach can be applied to most goals. But, if your goal is to not punch co-workers in the face, don’t start punching half the desired number of co-workers. If you have a goal that can’t be cut in half, like paying down debt, double the time you want to reach the goal in to produce the same results.
How does this impact work-related goals? There’s a good chance your boss won’t appreciate you cutting goals they’ve set in half. However, when it comes to corporate goals, the research suggesting that reduced goals perform better in the long term gives you ammunition to help set the right goals in the first place. If you’re a leader at work, be a boss. Create a culture of honesty so your team will have the freedom to disagree with you and help set realistic goals from the start.
Don’t give in to perfectionism, set yourself up for success – start by cutting the goal in half.
Choose what to bomb
Decide what is not important to succeed at a goal that matters. Got kids? They are a beautiful crisis. In the face of said crisis, does the lawn really matter?
Many of us choose to do more than is reasonable but assume we should be able to do it all. Look at me, working toward burnout! When you can’t do it all you feel shame. Choose strategy instead. Put the ball down on purpose. Most books like this one focus on how to get everything done, instead of telling you not to try to do everything. That approach creates more stress, not peace of mind. Decide what things in life you can be bad at. Choose not to care about the yard ahead of time so you don’t feel shame when the grass becomes outnumbered by the weeds.
If you’re a leader at work, you might need to take simplification a step further and delegate. It’s easy to fall into the trap of not letting other people help. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and the idea of saying no or simplifying sounds difficult, assign some tasks to other humans. We get into trouble when we try to do too much.
To go all in on the things that matter, choose a few that don’t.
Make It Fun if You Want It Done
Make sure your goal is fun, laughing and smiling along the way to the finish line is key to succeeding. Perfectionism makes us believe fun doesn’t count, the harder it is the better it is and there’s no ROI on fun. To be right and true, the goal and the method of reaching it must involve blood, sweat, and tears. The truth is, fun not only counts, it’s necessary if you want to beat perfectionism and finish. We crave challenges that will make us miserable. These are not goals, they are forms of torture.
Acuff gives a fun aside here about table tennis politics in middle Tennessee and takes a moment to acknowledge that reading includes audiobooks at 1.5 speed (as this author listens at 1.6x).
Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals are an excellent way to plan the steps to meet a goal. This is helpful but boring. It could be used to describe cauliflower. Fun is personal and it can look weird. Weird works. Perfectionism leaves no room for weird because it’s about conformity.
A great finishing principle to achieve satisfaction and performance success is to do something fun or enjoyable. Study after study confirms that if you enjoy it, you will perform almost twice as well at it. A lot of people leave a lot of good jobs because the job isn’t fun. So, ask yourself how can I add fun to this goal?
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion”
– Simon Sinek.
Use Data to Celebrate Your Imperfect Progress
Progress is quiet while failure is loud. Your goals should have compounding progress, not diminishing interest. The candle effect is a great example. Light a candle in a dark room and there will be an immediate, notable change. Adding a second candle provides impressive results that aren’t quite as dramatic. Each candle you add has less and less impact. Rates of improvement drop. Perfectionism uses these shrinking measures of success to convince us that things aren’t going well. It screams failure and hides progress, convincing you that you should quit. The voice of perfectionism gets loudest in the middle of the goal, giving you a false impression of your progress. Data cuts through the noise and allows you to accurately review your progress and mistakes to make improvements. Memories and feelings edit themselves and can’t be trusted as accurate. Keep track of information to make informed decisions, they’ll show your progress for the future.
Looking for the finish line when you’re 40% of the way there can be discouraging. It’s important to measure progress from where you started to stay positive and motivated. Look back to 0, not forward to 100.
12 examples of data points you can start tracking easily:
- Time invested. Spending 15 minutes a day for 30 days adds up to a full workday at the end of the month.
- Revenue generated & products sold. If you have a business goal, measuring the money you’ve earned and the number of units you sold in a month is an easy data point to collect.
- Garbage bags full of stuff. Decluttering? Count the individual items you got rid of and the bags of stuff you donated.
- Miles run. There are lots of arguably useless but satisfying digital rewards available through apps on your phone or watch to track your progress and keep you motivated.
- Email subscribers. If you work in any kind of sales, the number of people on your email list is important to know.
- Meals made. Meal planning is one of the most important aspects of healthy living. Count the number of meals you chose to make at home last week instead of going out or ordering in.
- $$$ saved. The number in your savings account is a form of measurement.
- Dates with a spouse. Time with your spouse is time well invested.
- Prospects contacted. Even if your business is in the early stages, you can easily keep track of the number of prospective clients you contacted in a week.
- Hours slept. Sleep is a key to high performance. Track it simply with your alarm clock or get more detailed information with a wearable device.
- Thank you notes mailed. Work on your gratitude and track how you’ve acknowledged it.
- New contacts. Keeping track of how many people you met in person this month, not just on social media, will keep you on top of networking.
Your unique goal will have unique aspects for you to measure. Pick one to three data points and start collecting information to learn from. The data will help you make informed decisions as you move towards the finish. Your excitement will grow as you see your progress. Be careful not to let perfectionism talk you into overdoing it. Start with a few points and build up to more as you go.
The Day Before Done
Fear of success is just as powerful and common as fear of criticism. If you don’t finish, you don’t have to face the results of your work. It’s impossible to predict the outcome until after the fact. In the end, achieving your goal will result in a surprise. The fear of what now? After you’ve accomplished something it’s common to think, “what do I do now”? See it as another beginning, not the end. Don’t give in to perfectionism; let it derail you before you finish and reach your goal. Do not dread the day before done. Fear no finish line.
This might be the most easy to follow goal-setting book ever. The author has told us to cut our goals in half, dump some responsibilities, and have fun. He’s given us some good laughs along the way. I recommend finishing the book, it’s a fun read.