Finish
Summary:
According to studies, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. You’ve practically got a better shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina than you do at finishing your goals.
For years, I thought my problem was that I didn’t try hard enough. So I started getting up earlier. I drank enough energy drinks to kill a horse. I hired a life coach and ate more superfoods. Nothing worked, although I did develop a pretty nice eyelid tremor from all the caffeine. It was like my eye was waving at you, very, very quickly.
Then, while leading a thirty-day online course to help people work on their goals, I learned something surprising: The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite— they took the pressure off.
Why? Because the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism. We’re our own worst critics, and if it looks like we’re not going to do something right, we prefer not to do it at all. That’s why we’re most likely to quit on day two, “the day after perfect”—when our results almost always underperform our aspirations.
The strategies in this book are counterintuitive and might feel like cheating. But they’re based on studies conducted by a university researcher with hundreds of participants. You might not guess that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works. But the data says otherwise. People who have fun are 43 percent more successful! Imagine if your diet, guitar playing, or small business was 43 percent more successful just by following a few simple principles.
If you’re tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder, since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
As someone who loves to be as efficient as possible, I wanted to read this book because I certainly relate to the temptation to set huge goals and then be disappointed (to some degree) when I don’t necessarily fulfill all the requirements. The perfectionist gene runs in my family.
“Finish” is a practical guide that helps you break down goals into achievable chunks and re-orient thinking to remember that any progress, no matter how imperfect, is better than no progress. Can’t get in a run? Go for a walk. Can’t go for a walk? Go for a wander around the office to at least get moving for a little. My favorite quote is “The only way to accomplish a new goal is to feed it your most valuable resource: time. And what we never like to admit is that you don’t just give time to something, you take it from something else. To be good at one thing you have to be bad at something else.” It’s easy to set goals, but it’s hard to accept that you won’t be able to juggle everything else just as well as you did before that goal. I don’t think there were many things that blew my mind, but as a solid reminder of great strategies for “getting things done” and a great refresh provided in a fun and entertaining format.
Rating: 4 stars!
Who should read it? Anyone who wants to get more done in their life.