Yesterday, I was in the city at a business event. The speaker mentioned a very interesting statistic: “95% of us are hardwired to start new things and not finish them.” Wow, right? It kind of sounds like a New Year’s Resolution! Why don’t we finish? Why are we captured by the next shiny thing, or is it that we get bored or distracted? I’ve thought about this before, but when she mentioned, “95%,” she had my full attention.

Why don’t we finish what we start? Well, it appears that “starting” is the exciting part, and “finishing” —not so much. That makes sense, right, especially if you’re a creative. The shiny new thing gets less shiny very quickly. Eating healthy and exercising is awesome until the first invite out to dinner or the first rainy day—and now it becomes a chore. It just got really heavy and not so shinyl. Does this sound familiar?

But there’s an answer—and a book! Some of the ways to finish what you start are: Put everything on your schedule, don’t start too big too fast, don’t take on too many things, make a list of ALL of your project and see if you can pare down that list, and finally, get an accountability partner! Just knowing that 95% of us are hardwired to start new things and not finish them is information we all need to know. And if you want to read a book about finishing, Charlie Gilkey wrote Start Finishing, and I just ordered it from Amazon!

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!
Beth