Readers: First of all, there is a part of this blog that may unintentionally contribute to that annoying ‘shiny object syndrome’. My real hope is your finding the content that bolsters your current work, so please…

SIFT! Pick and choose what most helps you.

On to the bigger picture of ‘getting stuff done’…

This excerpt (which references NBC’s singing competition The Voice) always hits home with me and inevitably, within a day of reading it, I find something–anything–to complete. On a good day, it’s a writing project. On a more scattered day, it may be as simple as a household chore I’ve been putting off, even if it’s baking biscotti. Lots I can accomplish while they’re in the oven, right?

Here’s hoping Jon Acuff’s excerpt nudges you forward.

“Most of us spend most of our lives wondering what if. We imagine. We dream. We hope. And a week turns into a month turns into a year.”

“The stage stays empty. The mic stays quiet. The chair won’t spin around because no one is singing. In moments like this, the goal doesn’t disappear. We think that perhaps the sands of time will cover it up and we will forget all about it, but we don’t. A goal unfulfilled may grow dim, but it never goes dark. A movie character will remind us of the promise, a store window where a book like ours sits or an offhand comment from a friend will stir it all back up. Goals you refuse to chase don’t disappear—they become ghosts that haunt you. Do you know why strangers rage at each other online and are so quick to be angry and offended these days? Because their passion has no other outlet.”

Acuff, Jon. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done (pp. 189-190). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

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Here is a link to the book’s Amazon listing.

Because I believe in the value of this book (honest! With this book’s help, I’ve finished plenty of other projects!), this IS an affiliate link. It costs you nothing and contributes to my current favored cause, Charity Water.

Thanks for visiting.

Question: When Jon encourages readers to ‘finish’, what synonyms come to mind for entrepreneurs?

“Ship” first pops in my head. So, every time I see finish, I just translate it to ‘ship’.

So, forge ahead, folks. And keep the quote below in mind.

“Unfortunately, perfectionism dies slowly. It’s persistent and particularly dangerous because it masquerades as excellence. Some readers have already felt uncomfortable with this chapter because they think the opposite of perfectionism is failure. It’s not. The opposite is finished.”

Here is a link to the book’s  Amazon listing. Still no affiliate links, just URLs that I hope will be helpful!

So, it’s December.

How did your goals for the year turn out?

And please don’t tell me you didn’t foresee the worldwide pandemic…We all knew it was coming.

Okay, maybe not. ;-?

Anyway, because goals drive many of you, and because I’m a solid ‘starter’, but often fall short at ‘finishing’, I’ll be sharing snippets from Jon Acuff’s Finish, a book I bought and read in 2017.

Valuable stuff.

In fact, if nobody reads these posts, I’ve lost nothing–this is a book I should revisit every year anyway. 

In today’s Finish snippet, Jon takes aim at perfectionism:

“Perfectionism always makes things harder and more complicated. Finishers make things easier and simpler. The next time you work on a goal, I dare you to ask the following questions during the middle of the project: Could things be easier? Could things be simpler?” 

Here is a link to the book’s  Amazon listing. Click the  ‘Look Inside’ button for more sample pages.

If nothing else, click to the table of contents. The chapter titles will give you plenty to think about.