How to Actually Complete a Project After You Start It
There are countless reasons why people start projects but never finish them, and contrary to popular belief, many of them have nothing to do with laziness, lack of focus, or an inability to get things done.
Of course, there are situations where this is the case, as well as others where a project is left unfinished for logistics or timing reasons, although many of us likely fall into a different category: those struggling with the middle parts of a task. This is why it can be such a struggle, and there are several strategies for completing every project you start.
Getting started is usually not the hardest part.
Every time someone needs or wants to make a major difference in their life — whether it’s quitting smoking, preparing for a marathon, or moving to a new home — they will inevitably be told that “getting started is the hardest” (or whatever).
While this makes sense from a motivational standpoint, it really isn’t. (Although convincing someone to make the change would be much more difficult if we went like this: “the beginning is the hardest part – until the middle, which is actually much more difficult and probably when you either leave or seriously think about it . ”)
Here’s how John Acuff, author of six bestselling books, including Done: Give Yourself a Ready Gift, explains it:
Our culture captivates the start and ignores the finish. We’ve got popular phrases like “Getting started well is half the battle” or “The hardest part of any journey is the first step,” but that’s even slightly true. The first part is never the most difficult – the middle is much more difficult than the beginning.
So instead of seeing our “inability” to complete projects as a character flaw and feeling guilty every time we see a guitar that we’ve only used once, leaning against a wall, Acuff recommends that we reconsider our goals before even embarking on something new.
Stop thinking of goals as all-or-nothing principles
In an interview with Ryan Hawke, host of The Learning Leader Show , Acuff argues for setting goals based on what we, as individuals, need or want to do, rather than public perception of what a particular task entails:
Many people set too big goals. Part of my goal with this book was to divide our urban legends around goals, which included the ideas of “Become great or go home” or “Aim for the moon and even if you fail, you will be among the stars. … “I just didn’t think it was true. My theory was that if your goal was to lose 10 pounds and you lost eight, you would lose by two and throw. Most people rate their goals as an all-or-nothing process. I knew that if you reduced your goal to five, and you lost the same eight, you would win by three, and kept trying.
If you’re struggling with the idea of aiming for something closer than the moon, Akaff has two suggestions. The first is to simply cut your goal in half. He tested this strategy in his own research and found that of the participants who cut their goals in half, 63% of them ended up doing better with them.
The second is to start by setting a realistic goal that is within your reach. If / when you get there, nothing will stop you from going to the next level, plus you get the confidence boost that comes with completing something.