Here’s Why You (Might) Suck at Finishing Things

Finish what you’ve started. In my most honest moments, I’ll admit that this is, indeed, one of my greatest challenges.

I suffer no lack of ideas. But ideas are minor and mostly sterile. Actions are sovereign and irrevocable.

Which is why there’s a temptation to lean on the former and call it “progress.” (Guilty.) Because it’s easy. Because all of those neurons vigorously rubbing together, all that chin scratching, all of those elegant scribbles in that nice looking notebook… it all kind of feels like work is being done. Like something’s being accomplished.

Until, of course, one reaches the year’s end and realizes, upon reflection, the harsh truth.

Such is the struggle.

Now that I’m all settled into Exosphere Academy in Brazil, my day starts at 5:45am for an hour of group PT with the Mars Colonization team.

After a shower and a short meditation, I get reacquainted with my to-do list. After that, I’m either attending a discussion on philosophy, learning how to code apps on the blockchain, discovering how to be a better entrepreneur to “disturb the universe,” learning community-building skills, attending accountability sessions, taking Portuguese classes, working on a novella about future space settlers on Mars, putting together your daily missive for Laissez Faire Today, attending a Sunset Talk or two (where experts come to the Academy twice a week and speak about their professions), or taking advantage of the nature (or one of the 40 beaches) in the area.

To keep up, I’ve all but given up two things: drinking alcohol and mindlessly browsing social media. Once I noticed how much of a time (and physical and mental health) suck both of these actions can be (especially when done in concert), I’ve sliced the heads off of both snakes. (My deepest apologies to Zuck and the monks who mix Chartreuse.)

To stay organized, I’ve (digitally) cracked open the famous, Getting Things Done by David Allen for a quick, practical framework.

This is, as a result, what I’ve begun implementing…

Capture everything. The suggestion is to capture absolutely everything in a notebook, app or planner. I’ve chosen to use both a notebook and a desktop app called WorkFlowy. With WorkFlowy, I can organize, in a very simple way, what I need to do based on the importance of the task and whether it’s personal, professional or part of Exosphere.

Clarify the things I have to do. The next step is to break each task down into small, actionable steps. If there’s anything I have time to do immediately, I do it. If there’s anything I can delegate, I do it. For clarification on how to clarify your goals, I found this video with David Allen useful.

Reflect on my to-do list. Every morning and night, I’m committing to taking at least ten minutes to looking over and clarifying tasks, plus reflecting on what I did, what I didn’t and what I could’ve done better.

Engage and get to work. Once my tasks are clear and broken down into manageable steps, it’s time to get to work. I do as many small steps as I can, based on priority. I (try) to stay focused (not engaging into social media has helped) and give myself plenty of breaks. Also, I’ve been reaching out for help with other learning technologies. I was, for example, recently introduced to a simple but powerful program called Anki.

Organization is great. But it’s not sufficient. It’s not going to get me to the finish line.

The hardest part is yet to come… that final stretch.

If you, too, are going through a restructuring of your priorities for 2017, to help us both stay focused, I invite Luke Blackburn, Chief of Staff at Exosphere, to the show to rap about what you can do to keep your edge by doing what most, ultimately, won’t — finishing.

Stay focused. Keep moving. The best is yet to come.

Read on.

The F is for Finisher 4 Reasons Why It’s So Hard to Become One

The most attractive people in the world are the finishers. The people who finish projects, complete thoughts, execute plans, fully develop ideas, play the last chord, end fights, and close chapters.

They do it in spite of ugliness and imperfection because they know that’s the starting point for greatness.

They are so rare.

Think of the flip side. For example, the guy who picks up a guitar and plays a few chords of your favorite song then trails off and says, “I didn’t learn the whole thing.” Or when you find a fascinating blog post that promises a 5-part series and only two were written.

People are drawn to the finishers because they are different. They use their imagination and abilities to gift creations to the world.

A few decades ago, you created things because you were bored. Today, because you have so many things to entertain yourself, creation has become a forgotten answer to your boredom.

It’s not technology’s fault, either. It is inertia and social pressure. Technology has given us both new ways to entertain ourselves and new ways to create and share. Most of us are just choosing the former.

How often do you see posts about “binge-watching” a tv series instead of learning to paint or writing a story?

As a society, we only value right now sex appeal. We don’t care about the process, we just want the end result.

Much of the illegitimate suffering is caused by the lack of active creation in one’s life.

“Creation leads you to the best things in life, consumption just kind of fills the gaps in between.” — Jason Zook

Humans are born as creators.

The entire world of a child is a creative, playful process. It is a means of expression and self-discovery. Children consider creation as normal behavior  —  because it is.

But at some point in life, we look up to adults and question, “Hey, why aren’t you building or creating anything?” An honest answer to the question is a damning indictment to our society.

The answer is usually, “Well, because I am not very good.” or “I’m worried about what other people will think.”

Society destroys child-like imagination and creation because of our own fear and insecurity to fit in. What could be if we held onto the mindset of creation as playful fun?

I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s hard to create something new and unique. It requires thinking, creativity, inspiration, determination, and a whole lot of work!

There are four reasons why creating something new is so difficult. If you become aware of them, it will be a little less frustrating next time you try.

I have discovered these during the last two years of self exploration in entrepreneurship, music, art, and writing.

1 —Weak Creative Muscles

The creative process is like working out. It is a group of mental muscles that need to be worked in order to get better and stronger.

In weight lifting, proper form requires a full range of motion. If you are doing chin ups and raise your chin only halfway to the bar, you are not going to improve. The only way you will improve is by completing the full process over and over.

As you start to explore your talents and figure out what you want to create, it can be frightening because it’s unfamiliar territory. Luckily, there is no right or wrong way, it’s just about creating things that you enjoy.

2 — Know Your Enemy: Self doubt

There is a cycle that affects creators. It goes something like this –

When that spark of inspiration strikes and you have the outline of a great work shining in your mind, it’s easy to start working.

Writing an outline and planning the creative process is easy because the idea is still living in your mind. Pulling it from your mind and manifesting it in the physical world is the hardest part.

Every project has a proverbial fork in the road. The fork is self-doubt and questions of, “Is this worth it?” and “Will anyone even care that I made this?”

You have to fight those toxic thoughts and remember that it may not be pretty, but you need to keep going so you can learn and get better.

3 — Comparing Yourself to Others

Think about the first time you played a sport, the first time you practiced an instrument, or the first time you talked to a crush. You probably sucked at it. Relative to the others first-timers you may have been good, but compared to those with experience, there was a significant difference.

It’s human nature, but you have to fight this urge. When you are a beginner at anything, you should only be compared to yourself.

You hear a world-class musician, you read a poet laureate, you use award winning software, or watch a professional athlete and think, “Wow, they make it look so easy.” Believe it or not, at some point in their life, they too were beginners. What made them great are the countless hours of failing and trying again until they got the results they wanted.

To live a unique life in which you follow your own star, you can only compare to your previous days work.

4 — Becoming a Finisher

There is a Pareto distribution that affects the creative process. The first 80% of the work is easy compared to the final 20%.

The polishing, editing, and finalizing of any project is going to be frustrating because it is often a process of subtraction instead of addition.

So instead of thinking you’re almost done when the bulk of the article is written, learn to expect the hardest part at the end. It is the most important part of the process.

You don’t know the joy and fulfillment that comes from completing the process until you do it at least once.

Next time you get that spark of inspiration, I encourage you to take it seriously and try to create something with it. Remember that humans are born creators. Flex those mental muscles and in time it will be a bit easier to complete those projects.

We are building a community of Finishers at Exosphere.

We encourage you that even if it’s ugly and far from perfect, which I guarantee it will be the first few times  —  finish what you start. Become a finisher and then start something new. The world is waiting.

[Ed. note: This article originally appeared on Luke’s Medium page, right here at this link.]

Good things to come,

Luke Blackburn
Chief of Staff, Exosphere

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