Finish
This is a book review of the book that I read on blinkist and wanted to share some notes on what’s interesting. This blog misses awesome stories of author and some answers to your question starting with WHY?, and focuses on just the key points, You can consider it as abstraction on knowledge, Hence you can buy the book to dive deeper.
Tune in 🎶
About the book:
Finish (2017) is a guidebook for anyone who loves starting new projects but always struggles to complete them. You’ll discover how the real enemy to getting things done isn’t laziness, but rather the voice of the disgruntled perfectionist we all have inside us. This valuable advice can help you reduce needless, self-imposed pressure, giving you the opportunity to finish what you’ve started and be more productive.
About the author:
Jon Acuff began his current career with a popular blog and has become a sought-after public speaker who’s inspired many to live a happier, more productive life. He is also the creator of “30 Days of Hustle,” an online challenge to help people reach their goals. His other books include the New York Times best sellers, Start, Do Over and Quitter.
Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done
What’s in it for me?
Push through your mental roadblocks and finally get things done.
**Nothing in life is perfect, and the real work of finishing a project begins after the first sign of imperfection.
I quit once it stopped being perfect, (Perfectionism)
If we limit ourselves to perfect work, we’d never accomplish anything!
How you deal with these imperfections, and how you proceed once they arrive, is what determines your success in meeting goals.
it’s the actions on the day after something went wrong that separate the quitters from the achievers.
The day after imperfections like these are when you need to accept that life is messy, and push on with your goals. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that excellence can only be achieved through perfection when, in reality, perfectionism is the killer of excellence
Avoid being overambitious, and increase your likelihood of finishing by cutting goals in half.
The concept of planning fallacy was pioneered by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. They found that people typically reveal a bias toward optimism by constantly underestimating how much time a task will take to complete.
A reliable way to avoid both planning fallacy and perfectionism is to cut your goal in half. This will greatly reduce the chance of quitting due to being overwhelmed or biting off more than you can chew.
Reduce pressure by letting yourself be bad at some things.
No one enjoys producing bad work, but sometimes letting yourself be lousy at one thing allows you to finish more important work.
This brings us to the next pitfall of productivity: thinking that we need to be great at everything, when in fact it’s beneficial to be bad at some things.
you need to practice strategic incompetence; admit that you don’t have time to do everything and let things go, or give it the minimum amount of effort required.
You’ll get more done when it’s fun.
You would certainly be better off enjoying the work you do, since you’re more likely to achieve your goals if they involve something you like doing
two decisive factors in setting a goal are satisfaction and performance success.
look at this is through a simple equation: fun = success. We don’t always get to pick our goals, but we can often turn them into work that is fun.
You can think up prizes to add at the end of every week when short-term goals are reached,
Deadlines can also be turned into a fun motivator. A lot of people dread deadlines, but they also provide a certain rush. So, instead of one monthly or weekly deadline, you can set up multiple deadlines every day to get that recurring thrill that keeps you going.
Identify your own perfectionist rules and find your true motivations.
One of the biggest lies related to perfectionism is that perfection is attainable if we follow certain rules.
Now, these rules can vary from person to person, and they can make it impossible for people to finish their projects, so it’s helpful to figure out your own perfectionist rule.
“If something is easy, it can’t be worth doing,” and “If it’s not successful in ten days, it’s a failure.”
“What do I really want?”
focus away from perfectionism and start getting good results.
Avoid last-minute pitfalls that play into your fear of failure.
If you’ve gotten this far, you might think it’s smooth sailing from here, right? Not so fast. Perfectionism will strike once more, on the day before done.
One of the tricks of perfectionism is to think ahead to “what-if” scenarios, and as the finish line draws near, these thoughts can turn to fears that will cause you to stumble right before the end. If you’re writing a book, you might be nearing the end and start thinking, “What if the critics hate it? What if no one buys it?”
Stephen King once said, “People are extremely hard to live with when they have a talent they aren’t able to use.”
instead of playing “what-if” games, see what happens – and don’t waste time and energy worrying about things that haven’t happened yet.
Be honest about your motivations, and if this kind of situation applies to you, it’s probably time to reassess your fears and rewards, so that you can give yourself that final push to finish.
no external praise will compare to the personal joy and satisfaction you’ll get when you follow through and keep the promises you’ve made to yourself.
Blinkist takes outstanding nonfiction books and distills their key insights into made-for-mobile book summaries that you can read in just 15 minutes. Learn something new every day - on your smartphone, tablet or PC.
Thanks for reading the blog, If you love the content, subscribe below
