Recently, while I was at a party my friend introduced me to a guy whose just a few years older than me that owns a Yacht Company. We talked a while and in the course of our conversation, one thing that he said stuck out. He shared with me he in his life that he focused on completion instead of working hard. He went on to be a bit more specific and said he would rather have employees that completed projects than that merely said they were hard workers.
The world doesn’t need any more hard workers. What does that even mean anymore? If someone walks up to you and tells you they are a hard worker are you going to hand them a badge or a sticker that says hard worker. Of course not, you are probably going to say, “that’s nice.” and then not really know what to say next, so you will quietly walk away.
However, if someone walks up to you and says , “hey check out this book that I wrote.” You may think to your self, “wow that is pretty cool, this person finished something that took quite a bit of effort.”
Unless we finish what we start, we have nothing to show for our labors. To put it even more bluntly if we don’t finish what we start it’s just wasted time. There’s a great verse in the bible in Luke 14:28 that says, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?”
We all have great intentions. We intend to lose weight. We intend to start writing a book. We intend to start a business. We intend to find the person of our dreams. We intend to pursue our dream life. In short we intend to do a lot of things, and then we may even make it to the point where we begin projects. You could even call it we begin to build towers, but never take the time to count the cost. We end up with many partially built towers in our lives.
I too am not immune from having started and left behind many towers. I get it we give something a try and often times when it becomes hard, we leave it to pursue the next exciting tower.
I know some of my partially built towers in the past were partially learned piano, partially learned guitar, and partially wrote a book.
What are your towers that you have begun? Are they still worth finishing?
While there are some partially built towers I still want to build. Looking back there are partially built towers in my life that I am completely fine with having left them to rot and decay. One of which , when I was younger I played the trumpet, I no longer have interest in doing that.
What I’m talking about getting back to work on is those partially built towers that you still look back and say, “I wish I would have finished that tower.”
If you wish you would have finished one of these partially built towers in your life, even if it has decayed and rotted a little bit, just start. But this time, finish the tower to level that you desire.
Unless we finish our projects and task, we are often left with a pile of should of, could of, and would of.
A few years ago I decided I was sick of having partially built towers in my life. There were a few towers that I wanted to dust off and start working on again, and so I did. I started to work on those towers again specifically: sing, read daily, play the guitar, and write my book. I didn’t love every second of doing each of these. And there were times that I would even hate it. However, for a year I forced myself 6 times a week to each of these 15 minutes a day. And the funny thing that happened, using guitar as an example after I kept with it, I began to learn some songs and perform them and felt amazing. Most recently, I learned Ed Sheeran’s song, “Perfect”. It took a while but I stuck with it and figured it out.
I began to finish what I started and it felt so good.
Can you imagine if you would have completed everything that you have started in life, “How much farther along would you be now?”
Once again, The world needs finishers. It needs people that say they are going to complete a project by a certain time and then they actually complete a project by that time.
If you want to get paid significantly more , it’s time to become a finisher.
Think about it in terms of sports, all of those athletes on the football field are “hard workers” however the player that barely made the team gets paid $465,000 and the top athlete on the field according to Forbes is Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers… He is currently getting paid 76 Million dollars.
That is just a staggering number, the guy that’s a finisher gets paid 163x what the guy doing the bare minimum gets paid.
The world wants and more importantly rewards finishers – not just hard workers.
So what is a hard worker – a hard worker is one that walks around telling people how many hours they put in last week at work. We all know that person that says they put in 40 hours at their job, and we know that if they are lucky they may have gotten 10 hours worth of work done in those 40 hours.
Remember It does not matter how many hours you put into the work. It matters how much work you put into the hours. When you start putting more work into the hours, you are on the path to becoming a finisher.
Now if you are not already a finisher, how do you begin?
Today, pick a project that you want to and are willing to commit to for the next week and then get it done. Take a look at your week before you commit to this, and then decide something that you will absolutely complete within the next week .
Another way to become a finisher is to get someone else on your team an accountability partner or a coach that will be an advocate for the life that you really want to have instead of your default life. Pick someone that is willing to hold your feet to the fire.
I have an incredible accountability partner and coach that I work with named Limhi Montoya, we keep each other’s feet to the fire and we make sure that we keep our commitments. He has coached me and guided me through some challenging times in my life, and I know that he believes in me and wants me to be my best self.
We meet weekly as accountability partners for an hour in which we share commitments that we will complete in the next week and yes if they are not finished then there are consequences.
One week that I didn’t finish my commitments and true to our agreement, I had to take him to lunch and he got to choose the restaurant. Being the kind accountability partner that wants whats best for me, he chose a place that I personally hate. He chose Mcdonald’s. We went there, I had to pay and then worse I had to actually eat the food. I ended up nearly gagging, and it was not a pleasurable experience. Needless to say, since that time I have kept my commitments.
Often when I am coaching a client that has a project that inspires them, but that they have not followed through on for a while. We put REAL money on the line. I’m not talking 20 or 30 bucks. I’m talking REAL money.
One of my clients struggled with losing weight and really wanted to get to his goal weight. I suggested that if he didn’t meet his goal by his target date that he donate to an organization that most people detest and he countered with donating a decent amount of money to his college arch rivals football team and share with his friends on social media that he had donated money to the arch rivals program. We came to an agreement on the date and the money. We had check points along the goal of days that he would check in with smaller rewards and penalties. He struggled to hit some of those check points.
However, even though towards the end it took him a ton of work to hit that goal. He did hit that goal and did not end up paying out to the arch rivals football team, and instead was able to use that money to go buy something that he enjoyed.
So bottom line… Finish what you start. This does not mean that you have to go back and finish every single open ended project that you have ever done. However, if you look back at some of the things you left open ended you may find some that you want to start again.
When you look back at the end of your days do you want be able to say how many things that you started or do you want to be able to look back in awe at all that you have accomplished in your life? And if you think it’s too late, remember it is never too late!
As an ancient proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now!
If you still struggle with creating your ideal life instead of your default light, reach out to me and set up a coaching session with me and participate in “the ultimate life changing experience”.