Sparking an Idea Thursday : How To Finish What You Start!

Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday’.  Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers.  We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog!  If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired! Today’s topic? Spark an Idea to Finish What You’ve Started.

This week’s “Spark an Idea Thursday” is all about finishing what you started!

Now I think this is a great topic but I’m going to put a little twist on this one, OK?

What I’d like to talk to you about instead is WHY you don’t finish what you start.

Why the closer you get to finishing something, the harder it is to complete.

For instance, whenever I’d jump into a home improvement project I’d start with such enthusiasm…but just about the time I should be finishing up…I stop.

I’ll just get bored and I’ll move on to other things.

I’ve done ALL the heavy lifting and now I just can’t seem to finish the detail work, know what I mean?

It doesn’t matter if I’m painting the house, cleaning the basement or installing a laminate floor ( By the way, I guarantee if my wife is reading this she’s saying…yes, go on sir…)

Anyway, I never really understood why I’d start a project and then have such a hard time finishing it.

It really bugged me!

This was until I read “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield.

Steven Pressfield is a best selling author of many well known books but he’s most notably known for writing “The Legend Of Bagger Vance.”

Now in “The War of Art,” Steven Pressfield clearly identifies the problem that ails us all at one time or another.

And by the way, this is the primary reason we DO NOT finish what we start and her name is… PROCRASTINATION!

Or, as Pressfield labels her, Resistance.

Pressfield labels Resistance as the enemy of creativity.  The destructive force which lives inside all of us preventing you and I from reaching the mountain top of life or simply prevents us from finishing the moldings around our laminate floors!

Pressfield humanizes procrastination and warns us of her behaviors.

You see, Resistance will stop at nothing to prevent us from starting or finishing anything we deem worthwhile.

Pressfield says any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long term growth, health,or integrity triggers Resistance.

The more worthwile cause or activity, the harder she fights!

In fact, as I sat down to write this post, Pressfield reminds me: Writing this post is not hard, it was getting me to sit down and write that’s the hard part, got it?

I’m a little off topic here so let me swing around and get to my point, OK?

You see, on page 18 of his book, Pressfield hits the nail on the head as to why you and I don’t finish what we start and here is what he says….

“The danger is great when the finish line is in site. At this point, Resistance knows we’re about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it’s got.”

See, this is where you need to be most prepared…it’s at the end when you must be alert to Resistance and be prepared for the “counterattack!”

I’ve found humanizing Resistance and being able to identify her has helped me bust through the wall of getting it done!

Any time my little voice says, ” Just do it tomorrow” or “I’ll only watch 15 minutes of this show, THEN I’ll do my work” is just Resistance keeping me from doing my work!

Like Pressfield says, ” Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

So, have you put off starting your business?  Do you have a book idea you would like to start writing?

Or, do you just want to finish the baseboard moldings around your brand new laminate floor?

Now it’s time to MAN UP and kick Resistance in the Butt!

Now get busy, Bill Parlaman