What We Learn From Finishing What We Start

On this episode, Evolyn Brooks shares why it's important to simplify your goals and what we learn from finishing what we start.

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Transcript

Welcome to Built By A Boss.

I’m your host, Evolyn Brooks, journalist, award-winning producer, author, founder of In My Solitude LA.

On this podcast, you’ll hear unique origin stories, growth strategies and meaningful insights from successful female founders and entrepreneurs who are creating businesses and careers with intention.

But on today … it’s all about us and wrapping our heads around this new year 2023.

Usually, I am the queen of lists and resolutions, but this year it’s all about focusing on my top five.

My list has turned into five well-intentioned bullet points that are connected to the most important things I need to accomplish each day for the current and future me. 

This practice of drilling down to the essentials has really allowed me to direct more time toward the projects I value and also find the focus to finish them.

But sticking to my top five isn’t easy and it appears I’m not alone. Did you know that a staggering 92 percent of people that set New Year’s Goals never actually achieve them? That's according to research by the University of Scranton.

So, what do the remaining eight percent of go-getters know about completion that we don’t? 

Apparently, they are not just shortening their list of things to do, they are also making their goals more specific and challenging, but not too hard.   

I believe specificity is definitely important, but mindset matters, too! 

For many of us, there is an emotional payoff for not finishing what we start. 

When we don’t finish our projects, our art, or our screenplay, we never find out how good we are and how good we’re not. When we don’t finish things, or never start, we give ourselves permission to live in a fantasy world of who we could be versus who we are right now. 

When we don’t finish, we live in untested territory and risk becoming delusional by comparing ourselves to others who were brave enough to fulfill their own promise. 

Sometimes nothing of significance happens in the outside world when we finish our work. No applause, no great job, no award or reward other than knowing that we finished and honored the commitment we made to ourselves. We earned our own trust and for me that’s 99.9 percent of the battle.  When you know and trust that you can show up for yourself, that’s half the battle.

But back to finishing …. Finishing allows us to separate the outer self from our inner self and understand that we’re good enough as a person, but the work isn’t there yet. 

Finishing anything you care about is always a risk because it’s a blow to the ego when the work is not well received, or judged harshly. But, we need to know whether we’re good at something so that we know how to position its pursuit in our life. Is it a hobby, a career, a solo pursuit that simply brings us joy? What is our expectation? What do we want? Do we daydream about winning a Pulitzer Prize or an Oscar, but we’ve never written a word? 

It takes courage to create and hard work to finish what we’re working on. And when there is no payoff in sight, know that your effort truly matters and the act of completing your goal gets you one step closer to truly making your mark.

I’m Evolyn Brooks and you’ve been listening to Built By A Boss.  If you’re new to the show, liked this episode and found it valuable, please take a moment to leave a 5 - star review and a comment. It really helps other people find us who might like the podcast. 

Follow us at Built By A Boss on Instagram and also visit me at inmysolitudela.com for wellness content like yoga classes, reiki, meditation, our blog and really great products that support your mind, body and spirit. As always thanks for listening and I am grateful for you. Until next time … Be kind. Be Brave. Be Better. Be a Boss