Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done pdfdrive com

part of the computer industry he was best suited for. Was he a systems analyst
guy? Was he a programmer? Was he a network person? Without the data that
taking the classes would reveal, he’d be flying blind.
But taking classes online is easier said than done, right?
We’re all too busy.
People tell me this constantly. I have some goals, things I want to do, but I
don’t have time.
To that pushback, I’d simply say, “What is the data telling you?”
When Steve looked at his week, he didn’t just see days and hours, he saw
data. Cleaning the dentist office on the weekends and playing with his kids
didn’t allow much time on Saturday and Sunday. Connecting with his wife and
with friends, filled a lot of his evenings. He couldn’t take the classes via
audiobook while he drove to work, so his commute was unusable. The data told
him that the only free time he had was during his lunch break on the weekdays.
So every day during lunch, he took his iPad to the car and took the free
classes. Day by day, class by class, he finished. He wanted to take an intensive,
all-day six-week class that cost $20,000. That would have been the perfect
approach, but the data told him he couldn’t afford to miss six weeks of work and
he couldn’t pay $20,000 out of pocket toward something that was only a
curiosity at this point. That would have been like pouring an 80-year-old bottle
of Scotch on a piece of steak. Data helped him see that his inability to take the
shorter route wasn’t failure, it was wisdom.
That’s one of the great things about data.
It’s a shame killer. At any point during his hustle, Steve could have felt bad
about himself:
At my age, I should have a better job.
If I was a better dad, I wouldn’t have to work on weekends.
It would all be perfect if I could take faster classes.

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It would all be perfect if I could take faster classes.
It would all be perfect if I didn’t have to go at such a slow pace.
Perfectionism marched a parade down Steve’s street, but data blew up each
float with the truth.
Data told him his average job had a noble purpose—to meet his family’s
needs.
Data told him working four hours on a Saturday wasn’t the whole weekend
and he was doing it to support his family, and was not ignoring them.
Data told him taking classes an hour at a time during a lunch break was the
only pace he could go at and was therefore ideal.
Data won’t allow shame to take root.
Steve is still on the job hunt, but he’s got something on his side that most
people don’t have: data.
You need data. If you really want to stack the deck in your favor, you need
math on your side. The first way to make that happen is to measure backward.