(*Thoughts from Coach Ben. Just my thoughts as they came to me.)
Many of us are great at starting. We know what it is like to start a diet, a home improvement project, a New Year’s resolution, or a fitness program. Im not exactly why starting is so appealing. Maybe its because we see the end result in our mind and it just looks so good that we have to try. We have to redirect some of our energy to grasp that “thing” and have the satisfaction of accomplishment.
The unfortunate part is that, although most of us are world class starters, we are terrible finishers. The first bump in the road, shiny new object, or loss of interest and we bail. The ability to remind ourselves why we started is gone and we fall into a trap. The trap is two fold. The first, we start to give ourselves credit for starting in the first place rather than figuring out why we stopped. Secondly, we often trade in the high-reward high-risk goal for a low-reward low-risk goal. “I’m just not that kind of person” or “I have to know my limits” we tell ourselves. This type of thinking leads to many different things… Mediocrity not being the least.
So, you have two options. Keep being a flash-in-the-pan start and stopper or; learn how to finish the things you start and reach the goals you have. If you are the consummate starter, you will look for appetizer-type feel-good fifteen second inspiration to make you feel better. And then you’ll just stop there. If you want to learn how to finish you’ll need to go beyond that. You won’t stop at the inspirational quote or settle for a fifteen second validation. You’ll start to crave more than that.
So, this is what your going to do. The goal you gave up on, the one you really wanted, you are going to rekindle. You aren’t going to let yourself off the hook. There is no reason to take it easy on yourself in this area! Complacency, timidity, and fear do not rule you unless you let them. The goal you rekindle stick to it. Don’t refocus on all your goals that you ever gave up on; just one. Write down what its going to take. Maybe just a note; get to the gym early twice a week, prep your lunch by waking up 15 minutes early, show your spouse you love them by writing them a note.
Come on Iron Mile… We can do this.