Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done pdfdrive com

It’s Almost Never Now or Never
When you’re fighting a foe, there are two approaches—defense and offense.
Defense is coming up with a plan for when you’re attacked. Offense is attacking
first.
In the last chapter, we went on defense and prepared for the inevitable day
after perfect. We knew it was coming and wanted to be ready. In this chapter, we
went on offense and decided to cut our goal in half right out of the gate.
If you still don’t want to, I dare you to do a simple exercise. Ask yourself,
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
Let’s pretend for a minute that you cut your goal in half and instead of
cleaning your entire house, you cleaned just two rooms. For years, you’ve hated
how cluttered your house is and the idea of doing only two rooms doesn’t seem
like enough.
What’s interesting about this moment is that perfectionism will now tell you
that you can do it quickly. Do you see how often it changes tactics depending on
the situation? Remember, at the beginning of a goal it tells you that you’ll never
be able to do something. Now, it’s telling you to do it perfectly and quickly.
What if you doubled the timeline instead of cutting the goal in half? If
you’ve had a messy house for five years, why is giving yourself an extra month
to clean it so terrifying? You’ve waited sixty months to do anything and now it
has to be done this month?

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has to be done this month?
Perfectionism will tell you it’s now or never, forever obsessed with the idea
that if you don’t finish it now, you never will. Most New Year’s resolutions are
actually January resolutions. We’re so eager to have an amazing month that we
exhaust ourselves in the first three weeks of the year and never make it to
February. That’s just perfectionism trying to puppet-master your timeline.
So, what’s the worst that would happen if you cut your goal in half or gave
yourself more time? We already know the best that could happen. You’d
improve your odds of success by 63 percent. But would the world fall apart if
you did less or it took longer?
This idea definitely goes against every goal-setting bit of wisdom you’ve
ever heard. I know that, but remember, we’re trying to do two things here: 1.
Finish. 2. Beat perfectionism.
And perfectionism absolutely hates this chapter. Cutting your goal in half is
Kryptonite for perfectionism. It makes absolutely no sense and sends a bright
flare into the night about your intentions. Not only are you refusing to give in to
perfectionism, you’re setting yourself up for success before you’ve even started.
I know it’s weird, I really do, and you’ve never done it before. But unless
you want the same old results, you’ll have to do a few new things.
Start by cutting that goal in half.
Actions:
1. Think back to other goals you’ve attempted. Were they too big? Write
down what happened.
2. Write down a number associated with your goal. (It’s difficult to cut a
feeling in half.) Will you read ten books? Declutter four rooms? Lose
twenty pounds? Make five thousand dollars?
3. Decide whether you can cut your goal in half or double the timeline.
4. Share your goal with someone you trust and ask him if it’s too extreme.
5. If you’re uncomfortable with cutting your goal in half, spend a few
minutes answering the question “What’s the worst that could happen?”

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