The Power of Completing Anything
Published July 9, 2010
Imagine for a moment a carpenter of great skill and ability. His craftsmanship is superior and his ability astounds his peers. We’ll call this carpenter ‘Johnny’. Johnny loves thinking about building his next home. He thinks about all the cool things the home will have. It will have a hot tub! It will have a theater room! It will have a swimming pool! It will have a cat walk all along the ceilings for the cats to play and travel around! It will have marble floors! It will have solar panels! It will be spectacular!
Johnny starts putting the foundation together for the home. He works hard at it. He even finishes the foundation. But for all his hard work, there is not much to be seen of the finished product. Sweaty and frustrated, he loses faith in the home and walks off, leaving a foundation and nothing else. Six months later, he gets the desire back to build another home, designs it out in his mind and repeats the same process. Over the course of many years, Johnny has built many foundations, but finished nothing.
I say to Johnny, “I know exactly how you feel.” I have felt the sting of frustration in working so hard on something, but thinking, “Where is it? Why isn’t anything happening?” I’ve built many foundations myself that I never decided to keep building on. It’s a challenge isn’t it? I’ve done it more than once too! I had a computer games website in 2004/2005 I quit after building a foundation, I stopped adding to DrJerm because I thought the foundation I had built should be the house (thankfully I’ve continued my writing on my website here). I’ve had many ‘small projects’ I started that never were completed because I kept thinking the foundation was the finished project.
If there was a tribe for starting projects and not finishing them, I think I would be the shaman. This is the spiritual leader of a tribe. I’d have a really big totem staff and wear a costume and makeup signifying me as chief builder of foundations without the rest of the walls, ceilings, and inner workings. In fact, my village would be a bunch of foundations without the rest of the work completed. We’d have a tough time when it rains I tell ya! I think eventually the tribe would rebel against me just from the sheer frustration of having no ceilings over their heads during rain storms!
How to complete something
- Focus on one thing at a time. This is 80% of the challenge.
- Break up the tasks required to complete it every two weeks.
- Rinse and repeat until completed.
As an aspiring author, I completed 20 pages of my fiction/fantasy novel… over the course of eight years. This is called NOT VERY GOOD. It was only when I decided to focus completely on writing the first draft of the book and nothing else that it actually got done. This is… reality. My reality is that I’m not a good juggler of multiple projects. They all end up getting abandoned and I’m stuck back where I started. The power came when I realized that I could complete real, tangible, and very cool projects (like my book) by focusing on them completely until they are done.
Underline the word UNTIL
Until is a powerful word. I didn’t discover it until I heard Jim Rohn talk about the power of it. Think about the word until. Attach it to what you want to complete the most. I will work this project UNTIL it is done. I will work on earning more money in my career until it happens. I will work out until I look and feel a certain way. I will work on being a good husband and father until I see my wife reacting in a way that confirms I am doing it. And when until happens I will keep working on it perpetually as there is no end to improving.
What will you work on until you finish? There is power and confidence in completion that comes from knowing you are making a difference in the world. Don’t do what I have done and try to juggle multiple projects. Pick what is your best interest and work on it until it is completed. The power of until will carry you through.
- Increase Experiment
- Solve The Problem
- Approach Motivation and Avoidance Motivation
- Your Very Best
- The Quest To Receive From 100 People Their Top 3 Challenges In Life
- Winner's Put In The Extra Effort Even When It Hurts
- Some Bold Predictions From Jeremy
- It's Goal Time #1
- Wheel Of Fear
- The Difference In Your Fulfillment
Jeremy Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 2:51 PM
Hello Evita, it’s good to hear from you. The simple act of finishing is indeed very therapeutic and the repeating of it I am finding is one of the best ways to become more than I cam right now.
[Reply]