Finish What You Start: The Art of Following Through

To me, they mean making your intentions reality. Too often, we'll say we'll do something, and we might even start it one lucky weekend. But at the first sign of hardship, fatigue, boredom, or busyness, we abandon it all too easily and it sits in our garage (mental, figurative, or literal) for the r...

To me, they mean making your intentions reality. Too often, we'll say we'll do something, and we might even start it one lucky weekend. But at the first sign of hardship, fatigue, boredom, or busyness, we abandon it all too easily and it sits in our garage (mental, figurative, or literal) for the rest of eternity. Finishing what you start and following through is breaking through that common loop and taking hold of your life. damning reminder of my laziness and inability to follow through. When you can bribe yourself into working hard, suddenly finishing what you start isn't a massive exercise in willpower--- it's the pursuit of something pleasurable, if only by association. Suddenly, a new world was opened to me; if I could make any unpleasant task just pleasant enough by pairing it with something I enjoyed, I could plow my way through just about anything. It was a small realization like this that led me to study the science of following through and executing, despite the human brain's instinctual resistance to doing so. Chapter 1. Stop Thinking, Just Execute What Is Following Through? What do you suppose went wrong in Esther's situation? Did she lack focus? Self-discipline? Action? Persistence? If you say she lacked all of the above, you're pointing to actually just one concept: following through. Following through is related to focus, self-discipline, action, and persistence, but it is not synonymous to any of them. **The head: focus** Focus guides your thoughts in figuring out how to follow through and directs your actions toward achieving your vision. **The spine: self-discipline**. The spine of following through, self-discipline, is what enables you to get your head down and work when you need to, even if you don't want to. It's the ability to control yourself so that you retain focus on what needs to be done, despite the temptations and distractions you may encounter. This element is essential to following through because it's what gives you the power to regulate your own thoughts, feelings, and actions toward ends that are meaningful to you. **The hands and feet: action** Following through is an intention that's been translated into action. **The heart: persistence.** Following through is about having enough heart to keep pushing even in the face of obstacles, distractions, and setbacks. So there you have it---the individual parts focus, self-discipline, action, and persistence all combine to be the super-robot called following through and finishing what you start. It's gratifying and fulfilling to be able to pull together focus, self-discipline, action, and persistence within ourselves and get to watch our dreams be turned into reality as a result of it. But if following through is so awesome, why don't we all just do it all the time? The short answer is because it's hard. The long answer (which also explains why it's hard) is detailed below. Why Don't We Follow Through? When it comes to thinking up what we want to do, what we need to do, or what other people need to do, we're usually experts. Our ideas run wild, the blueprints in our heads get magically written out with not much effort, and the mental picture of us living our dreams comes into sharp focus faster than we can say "cheese!" The excitement and enthusiasm with which we thought out all our dreams and plans fizzle out as soon as we realize the amount of hard work we need to put in to turn those dreams into reality, to bring those plans into life. We don't follow through, and it's not for lack of ability or intelligence, no. We don't follow through for two main reasons: we have an entire selection of (1) inhibiting tactics and/or (2) psychological roadblocks that hinder us from finishing what we start. We'll cover each of those in turn below. Inhibiting Tactics Inhibiting tactics refer to our schemes for misusing time and effort, with the end result of our being held back from following through. These are ways we sabotage ourselves, sometimes consciously. These tactics, which include (1) setting bad goals, (2) procrastination, (3) indulging in temptations and distractions, and (4) poor time management, inhibit us from maximizing the time and energy we have toward productive ends. Psychological Roadblocks Psychological roadblocks refer to the internal, often unconscious mechanisms in our psyches that act as barriers to following through. Among these mechanisms are (1) laziness and lack of discipline, (2) fear of judgment, rejection, and failure, (3) perfectionism out of insecurity, and (4) lack of self-awareness. These psychological roadblocks operate internally to inhibit external action, thus preventing us from following through. Willpower is the energy that activates our bodies, while discipline is the focus that directs that energy so that we're constantly moving toward our goals. If we don't find a way to turn our willpower and discipline on, our bodies would simply continue to be in their inactive state, never following through. What if We Do Follow Through? Following through is the more difficult path, but the benefits it can yield make the journey worth the struggle. If you develop the habit of following through, you'll be able to increase your productivity, maximize every opportunity, and realize your fullest potentials. Your academic and career goals will be real guideposts in your life instead of just being pipe dreams and ending up as frustrations. Being a person who follows through will also improve your relationships. You'll find that as you consistently keep your promises, you'll gain and retain the trust of your supervisors, your colleagues, and your staff. More importantly, you'll be building better relationships with your spouse, your children, and your friends. They know they can trust your word because they've seen you act on your plans and deliver on your promises. In summary, following through is the powerful combination of focus, selfdiscipline, action, and persistence. It's the force that drives you toward higher professional achievements, better relationships, and greater personal satisfaction. **Takeaways**: The art of following through is something that allows you to create the life that you actually want instead of settling for the life you currently have. It can be said to be composed of four parts: focus, self-discipline, action, and persistence---all equally important. However, it's not just as easy as knowing you have to do it and thus doing it. There are powerful reasons we don't finish what we start and follow through very often. These reasons can generally be split into two camps: inhibiting tactics and psychological roadblocks. Inhibiting tactics are the ways we plan against ourselves without even realizing it. They include (1) setting bad goals, (2) procrastination, (3) indulging in temptations and distractions, and (4) poor time management. Psychological roadblocks are the ways we don't follow through because we are unconsciously protecting ourselves. These include (1) laziness and lack of discipline, (2) fear of judgment, rejection, and failure, (3) perfectionism out of insecurity, and (4) lack of selfawareness. Chapter 2: Staying Hungry How can you remain motivated? A key to Sally's failure was her inability to anticipate and plan for negative aspects of her foundation. This lack of drive is caused by a massive disconnect between three important aspects: (1) what the things we care about represent, (2) the positive benefits we receive from our actions, and (3) the negative consequences we can avoid related to our causes. When we lose steam, we aren't tied closely enough to any of those aspects, which come together to create motivation. There are many ways to define the concept of motivation, but an effective framework to view them through is external and internal motivations. External Motivators External motivators entail using sources besides yourself as motivation to do something. They are other people or circumstances that drive you to action. You are doing something to avoid a negative circumstance or earn a positive circumstance from people and things outside of you. Accountability partners. Accountability partners are people who hold you accountable. This is a person that you commit to something with. This person lets you know when you need to do things, and he or she chides you when you want to give up. Then he or she gets on your case for not following through. Since you want to avoid disappointing this person, you are more likely to act. You rely on this person to give you the external motivation to avoid shame so you become accountable for your actions and your goal to avoid his or her negative feedback. You may also become accountable in order to avoid letting this person down, as he or she counts on you to complete the goal with him or her Accountability group. An accountability group can be more effective than a single partner. By having multiple people holding you accountable, you face the possibility of exponential shame---the shame and disappointment of multiple people building on top of each other is a horrible feeling that you will want to avoid. Plus, you will still have people to hold you accountable should one person drop out of the race. It can be hard to rely on a single partner's commitment, but a group is much steadier in its pressure. Having more people to answer to and to guide you can help you stay on track to avoid shame. Putting money down. The risk of losing money is another motivator that you can use to your advantage. A good example of this is an expensive gym membership fee that makes you want to go to the gym more often. You don't want to waste money, so you go to the gym just to make that fee you paid worthwhile. **Self-bribery.** External motivations are mostly about avoiding pain, so figure out what pains you are avoiding or can create for yourself. Then let your urge to avoid those pains drive you. Avoiding negative social emotions works well because no one wants to feel shame, guilt, or rejection. Use your fear of negative social emotions to carry you through a project or commitment to the very end. Internal Motivators Internal motivators are about what you want, as opposed to avoiding a negative consequence or punishment. Understand Opportunity Cost Following through and finishing what you start will always call for sacrifice. Keep Your Motivation on Your Mind **Takeaways:** How do we stay hungry and motivated? By delving deep and really asking what internal and external motivators you have at your disposal---a task that is rarely performed. External motivators are when we leverage other people, places, and things to push us into action. For the most part, these are when we want to avoid negative consequences involving other people, places, and things. These methods include accountability partners and groups, putting money down upfront, and self-bribery. Internal motivators are when we look at how we stand to benefit and improve our lives. These are universal needs, drives, and desires that are easy to lose track of. The easy way to find these is to answer a set of questions that directly asks things such as how am I going to benefit from this and how does my life stand to improve from this? It's only through answering these questions that you realize what you are neglecting. Anything we want to accomplish has an associated opportunity cost. We must sacrifice, even if we are sacrificing our ability to lie on the couch and watch television. We can deal with this mental obstacle by playing with the cost-benefit ratio so the cost is minimized or the benefit is maximized. Motivation has been shown to work best when we are reminded of it---otherwise, out of sight, out of mind. Thus, you should have cues you're your motivations all around you---but make sure to keep them distinct and memorable, use all five senses (even taste), and make sure to change and switch them periodically to avoid growing used to them and forgetting them. Chapter 3: Create a Manifesto You will face forks in the road where you must deliberate between following through or giving up. Instead of having to make the hard decision and reach deep into your willpower toolbag every single time, having rules for yourself can help you decide which direction to take whenever you reach the fork. We've been told since we were young that we have to follow rules. Well, this time we can choose our own rules that will ultimately help us accomplish exactly what we want Rules can generally be called mental models, which can be critical to follow-through. This is because they create a set way that you have to make every decision, no exceptions. With your decisions already made for you by your rules, you thus make decisions automatically and you no longer have room to make the wrong decision based on waning willpower and selfdiscipline, which is to give up. This chapter is about creating a set of rules, collectively a manifesto, for you to follow every time you come across a fork in the road. They push and guide you into the right direction and avoid depleting the willpower you do have. Here are a few ideas for you. Rule 1: Evaluate Yourself Rule 1 is to ask yourself, "If not for laziness or fear, would I be giving up?" This makes it very clear to yourself that you are not acting out of a lack of ability or talent, but rather you are just taking the easy way out. Is that what you want to admit to yourself? When you face the fact that you are being lazy or fearful head-on, it makes you not want to be that way anymore. It's the kick in the butt that forces you to call yourself lazy/fearful and then drives you to take action. Rule 2: Three Tasks Maximum Rule 3: Create Limitations and Requirements Rule 3 is to make actual rules for yourself. Create an actual code of conduct for you to follow in terms of being more disciplined and following through more. Write your code down in detail and then post it in a visible area. While you may not adhere to all of them every day, you at least stand a better chance of follow-through when you actually take the time to think about your code of conduct and write them down. The rules should focus on creating either limitations or requirements for what you do each day so that you actually take initiative and get tasks done. This rule forces you to determine what you really need and want and analyze what you hope to achieve. Basically, you are stopping to check yourself and evaluate how you are progressing toward your ultimate goal. It helps you focus more on your intentions and clarify them, making them an integral part of your work ethic. So when you set out to accomplish something, you have a rule in place to make yourself follow through on the project. **Give yourself five daily limitations and five daily requirements. Make clear statements about what you cannot do and what you must do.** An example is to set a limitation that you will not watch more than one hour of TV a day, you will not spend more than an hour on Facebook, and you will not take longer than a one-hour lunch break. Meanwhile, your requirements are that you must read at least 30 pages a day, you must complete at least four hours of work before lunch, and you must complete eight hours of work total by the time you sign out or clock out of work. Rule 4: Reaffirm Your Intentions This rule seeks to reaffirm your intentions by reminding yourself what they are and why you want to achieve them. "I want..."" This is where you state your end goal and how you will benefit from it. What is your reason and motivation? Keep reminding yourself of the external or internal motivators that you have on your side. Remind yourself something like, "I want to be rich." "I will..." This is where you state how you must reach that end goal and all the work you should be doing to get there. This statement brings your attention back to how necessary it is to complete what you are currently doing and how these tasks tie into the end goal. The journey is a necessary part of the goal. It helps for you to be very specific in this statement to see what actions you really do have to take. For example, tell yourself, "If I want to be rich, I will need to finish this project and work hard on other projects." "I won't..." This is where you state what you shouldn't do because that action will impede your progress toward your end goal. There are many things detrimental to your progress, including distractions, temptations, lack of discipline, procrastination, and other destructive or wasteful actions. Tell yourself something like, "If I want to be rich, I won't distract myself with social media and I won't prioritize social media over my work projects." Let's apply this concept to a potential real-life conundrum that you may encounter. As you work to complete a certification program necessary to get a pay raise at work, you find the volume of work overwhelming and you despise having so little free time on your hands. You contemplate giving up and saying "whatever" to the certification. After all, you have a job, so do you really need to advance yourself anymore? Rule 5: Think in Terms of 10-10-10 The next time you feel that you're about to give in to an urge or temptation, stop and ask yourself how you will feel 10 minutes, 10 hours, and 10 days from now. This rule may not seem all that powerful, but it's effective because it forces you to think about your future self and to see how your actions are going to affect yourself in the future---for better or worse. A lot of times, we may know that we are losing willpower or doing something harmful in the moment, but that's not enough to stop us from doing it because we don't have any connection to our future self that will have to deal with the consequences. This rule quickly creates that connection, and that can make the difference between a success or failure of discipline. Why time intervals of 10 minutes, hours, and days? Because that helps you realize how short-term the pleasure or comfort of a discipline is relative to its long-term consequences. At 10 minutes, you might be feeling good, with perhaps just the initial bit of shame creeping in. After 10 hours, you'll feel mostly shame a regret. Ten days later, you might be consumed by regret having realized some of the negative consequences that your decision or action has had on your pursuit of your long-term goals. On the other hand, you might apply this rule and realize that a lapse in following through now won't make a difference 10 days into the future. If that's the case, then you can indulge a bit without guilt or shame. Rule 6: Just 10 Minutes The final rule is simple, easy, and powerful. If you want something negative, harmful, or detrimental to your follow through, wait at least 10 minutes before getting it. It's simple and leaves no room for debate or excuses. When you feel an urge, force yourself to wait for 10 minutes before giving in to whatever the urge is. If you're still craving it after 10 minutes, then have it. Or wait 10 more minutes because you've already done it and survived just fine. Simply by choosing to wait you remove the "immediate" from immediate gratification---building discipline and improving decision-making. Similarly, if you want to quit something beneficial, wait just 10 more minutes. It's the same thought process applied in a different way. Ten minutes is nothing, so you can wait or continue that long easily. Then, if you do it once, it's easy to repeat, isn't it? In other words, say to yourself "just 10 minutes more of willpower" each time you reach a fork in the road. Another benefit of this rule is the purposeful escalation of good habits. If you've forced yourself to do something productive for 10 minutes, you might end up doing it for 15 or even 20 minutes more. Next time, your tolerance will build such that you're more immune to temptation and distraction---the following time you might continue for an extra six or seven minutes. Every time you feel distracted, just exercise willpower for a few minutes longer, and you'll steadily follow through better with each escalation. At some iteration of "just 10 minutes more" you'll reach a point of momentum, and that's often enough to carry you for hours. Takeaways: A manifesto is nothing more than a set of rules to follow every day. We might hate rules, but rules take the guesswork out of our days and give us guidelines to follow. They make matters black and white, which is helpful to following through because there is simply no other choice. Rule 1: Are you acting out of laziness? If so, is this a characterization you want about yourself? Rule 2: Three major tasks a day, maximum. Differentiate between important tasks, urgent tasks, and simple wasted motion. Rule 3: Create daily limitations and requirements for yourself. These keep you within the bounds of what you know you need to do. These are also the building blocks of good habits. Rule 4: Sometimes we lose sight of what we want to accomplish. Thus, reaffirm your intentions by stating "I want," "I will," and "I won't" statements. Rule 5: Try to look into the future, 10 minutes, hours, and days at a time. Do you like what you see when you consider not following through? Is it worth the benefit to the current self at the expense of the future self? Probably not. Rule 6: It's just 10 minutes, right? So if you want to quit, it's just 10 minutes. And if you need to wait, it's just 10 minutes. Chapter 4: Follow-Through Mindsets Follow-through is 100% mental. It takes a cognitive effort to follow through on something, especially when you hit discouraging obstacles. Mindsets help with that. What is a mindset? A mindset is a set way of visualizing and approaching situations and problems. Certain mindsets are all it takes to find the will and motivation necessary to follow through on something. Gerald is an example of someone with a mindset that impeded with his progress. Gerald had many aspirations to create his own business. He was determined in spirit and relished the idea of one day being a well-known and rich entrepreneur like Steve Jobs. While he knew that success is not just something easy that anyone can grab, he did not realize how sometimes success calls for uncomfortable situations. When he actually endeavored to start his own business, he ran into a lot of situations that cause him fear. For example, he had to make a monetary investment and it terrified him to think that he may lose his money and never get it back. This fear made Gerald uncomfortable. Another thing he hated was having to conserve his money and cut expenses and luxuries he didn't need to devote more money to his start-up. Living without the luxuries he was used to made him quite uncomfortable as well---so much so that he could not handle it. Mindset 1: It's Worthwhile Consider what the Chicago Consortium on School Reform (along with many other educational experts) says motivates students to persevere even when things become difficult at school. Three concepts contribute to student success, which are easily transferable to our adult lives. The first concept is holding the belief that hard work can and will lead to improvement. No matter how hard things get, it is your efforts that will get you the results you desire, nothing else. Everything else is a byproduct of luck---the hard work itself is a prerequisite. Of course, hard work doesn't overcome everything, but it's an essential component that cannot be skipped. The second concept is having the confidence that you, and people like you, belong in school and that school is a place where you can thrive. You can apply this to settings outside of school. The heart of this concept is that you believe in yourself and that you are just as good as anyone else. Basically, you need to believe in your own abilities and trust in your opportunities. Don't create self-limiting beliefs that hold you back, such as thinking that you are not as good as everyone else. This belief is illustrated by feeling that you also have valuable input at a business meeting or that you have just as much ability to handle a client as everyone else in the office. The final concept is holding the belief that what you are doing is valuable and relevant to your goals. Why would you stick with doing something if you don't see how it benefits you or helps you reach your goals? That would undermine entire chapters of this book. Understanding why you do something and how it fits into the big picture of what you are trying to accomplish makes it seem more worthwhile. You won't want to quit an endeavor if you think that it is getting you somewhere. You don't even have to see instant gratification and goal completion to know that you are on the right track. Assigning value and remembering how each thing you do ties into your main goal is very important because it helps you feel that you are doing well just by working. There is a point to everything you do, so every action you take is valuable. An example of this concept at work would be when you feel that the classes you are taking for your degree are pointless. Remember that they are not pointless, because they are leading to your graduation, which in turn will lead to your dream job in the field of your interestUnderstanding why you do something and how it fits into the big picture of what you are trying to accomplish makes it seem more worthwhile. You won't want to quit an endeavor if you think that it is getting you somewhere. You don't even have to see instant gratification and goal completion to know that you are on the right track. Assigning value and remembering how each thing you do ties into your main goal is very important because it helps you feel that you are doing well just by working. There is a point to everything you do, so every action you take is valuable. An example of this concept at work would be when you feel that the classes you are taking for your degree are pointless. Remember that they are not pointless, because they are leading to your graduation, which in turn will lead to your dream job in the field of your interest Mindset 2: Comfort with Discomfort Another critical mindset is believing that your journey to success will become supremely uncomfortable at times, so you need to get comfortable with discomfort. Following through is never comfortable because it asks you to do things that are unfamiliar and new. To be successful and never give up, you need to minimize negative consequences of uncomfortable situations by getting immunized to the sense of discomfort. Sometimes, you feel the need to avoid something that will lead to success out of discomfort. Maybe you are avoiding extra work because you are fatigued, or you are avoiding talking to new people because it makes you nervous. You are actively shutting out success because you want to avoid being uncomfortable for a little while. Therefore, overcoming your instinct to avoid things just because they are uncomfortable for you at first is essential. Change is always uncomfortable, but it is key to doing things differently in order to find that magical formula for success. Try doing new things outside of your comfort zone. Do something new, try to learn new skills, talk to new people, and practice new actions that you are bad at until you are good at them. Expose yourself to new situations and things. The unfamiliarity will feel very uncomfortable, but you will not be able to expand your horizons and achieve success any other way. The more you do things that make you uncomfortable, the more comfortable you become with discomfort. You will find that discomfort is a temporary emotion that leaves with exposure to the situation. The benefits of being uncomfortable far outweigh the mild and fleeting unpleasantness of the sensation. Your mind will come to stop fearing discomfort so much when it realizes that discomfort does not actually hurt you. Meanwhile, staying comfortable by only doing what you know is a bad idea. It is the recipe for complacency and for staying static. You will not make any changes if you do what you always do. Don't ever give up on things just because they call for some change and discomfort. Discomfort is merely your fear instinct at play and does not actually hurt you, so getting comfortable with it is a good idea. Mindset 3: Allow Learning Mindset 4: De-Stress Stress affects how much willpower and self-control you have. You may not be consciously aware, but think about how little you can get done if you're stressed out or anxious. Even more so if you're simply tired and fatigued. Your working spirit is more delicate than you might imagine, which is why it's important to protect it and de-stress Point being? Don't underestimate the impact of stress on your ability to follow through. Takeaways: Following through is 100% mental, which means it's probably a good idea to talk about the mindsets you attempt to embody. Mindset 1: It's all worthwhile. If you feel that your hard work will get you somewhere, you belong and are as good as anyone else, and you feel impact toward your overall goals, execution is easier to stick with. Mindset 2: Become comfortable with discomfort. Everything you want to do will have elements of discomfort, unless you just want to watch television all day by yourself. Thus, becoming used to this feeling allows you to tackle what you want without fear. Mindset 3: Without following through, there is no learning. Only when you finish something can you evaluate yourself and correct your errors. Embody an information-gathering mindset. Mindset 4: The detrimental power of stress and anxiety can't be overstated. Even being in a poor mood is dangerous to your productivity and follow-through. Be aware and take proactive measures to modulate your stress levels. Chapter 5: The Science of Smashing Procrastination Takeaways: Tackling procrastination is similar to pushing Sisyphus's stone. You can beat it back for a bit, but it's so natural that you will never be fully rid of it. The problem is typified by time inconsistency, where we comprise two selves that don't have overlapping desires---one wants gratification in the future and the other wants it right now. Temptation bundling is an effective method to battle procrastination. It consists of combining your unpleasurable tasks with something pleasurable. This mainly works because you are battling time inconsistency and giving both selves what they want simultaneously. Start easy and small. Procrastination thrives off inertia. Therefore, you need to make the path to motion and action as easy as possible. Then eventually you can gain momentum---the opposite of inertia. Sometimes beating procrastination just requires a kick in the pants. Fear and productive paranoia can do that to you---if you are so fearful of the negative repercussions you will face, then you will certainly be spurred into action. But this is not a method to use very frequently. Chapter 6. No Distraction Zone This is a chapter that promises to kick your butt. It's full of powerful techniques to ensure that you jump into action. Without further ado, let's jump into it. Minimizing Distractions Takeaways: Minimize your distractions in your environment. It turns out that out of sight is out of mind with distractions, so don't keep anything stimulating near your workstation otherwise your willpower will slowly deplete itself. Create default actions wherever possible. This is where the easiest and lowest resistance past for you is the path you want the most. This is also done through curating and designing your environment for productivity. Singletasking is an important concept because it definitively proves the flaws of multitasking. When you switch from task to task, you create attention residue. This means it takes a while for you to adjust to each new task, even if you were already familiar with it. You can eliminate this by singletasking, and also by batching, which is when you do all similar types of tasks together to capitalize on your mental efficiency. A don't-do list can be just as powerful as a to-do list because we are rarely told what to ignore. As a result, these distractions or sneaky time-suckers can invade our space without us even knowing we are being duped. Include tasks you can't move forward on, make progress on, or help. The 40--70 rule is when you beat inaction through the amount of information you seek. If you have less than 40%, don't act. But if you have 70%, you must act. You'll never have 100%, and chances are, 70% is more than sufficient---the rest you learn along the way, anyway. Finally, you might want to do nothing from time to time. This is rest and relaxation---but you should think of it as mental recovery. What does an athlete do between races or matches? You got it---they recover so they are primed to work again when necessary. Chapter 7: Deadly Pitfalls **false hope syndrome** False hope syndrome occurs when you think that you can do everything on your to-do list and reach your dreams in a short amount of time. False Hope Syndrome False hope syndrome, what Michael had, is where you overestimate the changes you can make. You set unrealistic expectations for what you can do and the speed, number, and ease of the changes you plan to make to your life. When you can't accomplish everything on your list of desired changes, the disappointment at failing to reach your lofty goals can cause a powerful backlash that will cause you to give up hope. Even if you have extremely strong self-discipline and desire to change, you will still fail if your expectations are too high. Plan for proper expectations and figure out what you can actually hope for. Learn to let go of hopes that are not realistic and to set expectations that you can actually obtain or meet. One example of this might be thinking that you will magically be able to change your work habits, even though you have tried doing the same things in the past and have failed. You expect to get more done with distractions and multitasking, for example, even though that has never worked for you before. Changing your approach and not believing that you can initiate too much self-change is essential to being successful because it prevents you from falling into old habits and disappointing yourself. False hope is about controlling your expectations. When you can have realistic hopes, you can actually achieve, which leads to confidence, competence, and skill. Anything else is just setting yourself up for heartbreak and failure, which tends to not be productive. Don't shoot too high, but don't shoot too low; otherwise, you'll grow bored and unengaged. Just remember that your goals can be entirely different from your expectations. Overthinking Another mistake is overthinking. Overthinking is a silent killer of joy, hope, and reason. It kills your positivity and desire to carry on. Overthinking makes you inevitably fixate on the negative because they are so easy to find, and your entire worldview eventually goes dark. Overthinking is so tempting because it mimics progress. After all, you are thinking about work and doing research to make the best decision. You think you are being proactive. But really, overthinking is silently hampering you and this is another classic instance of mere motion versus actual action. You are considering too many options and doing too much research, which limits your ability to make an executive decision. You are wasting time doing research and forming plans for things that don't really matter instead of putting one foot in front of the other and eliminating your inertia. By overthinking, you freeze your ability to make decisions. Psychologist Barry Schwartz suggests that a paradox of choice is harmful because it leads to analysis paralysis. His studies reveal that having more choices actually causes people to develop anxiety and avoid making a choice in the long run. Having fewer present choices helps people narrow it down. Consider when you go to Walmart and you are faced with buying a new printer for your office. Standing before the wall of printers, all of which have great advertising and boast so many features, you find yourself overwhelmed and can't settle on a printer. You panic and buy the first one you see. (Or you go home without buying one even though you needed it.) You wasted so much time deliberating over printers and you ended up not even using the information you gained because you got overwhelmed. You can't decide because there is too much information overloading your brain in the process. This is a perfect illustration of how overthinking kills your ability to follow through and execute. So instead of overthinking, place an emphasis on action. Most actions are reversible---you can easily return a printer to Walmart. But you'll have gained no further information if you stay in the same place without moving. You can also limit the choices you give yourself and the criterion you use. Focus on the main things you need, and find the easiest choice that meets your needs. Don't fall down the rabbit hole of researching obsessively on Google or comparing thousands of brands to find the best one. Chances are, 90% of them do exactly what you want with little variance. So what are you really deliberating over? If you are tasked with buying the new office printer, determine three traits your office needs in a printer. Then go to Walmart and buy the cheapest one that meets all of those needs. Put blinders on such that nothing else matters. This is a classic example of limiting your information intake and being willfully ignorant. Overthinking can sneak in because we don't have clarity on what matters, so when you can articulate those, suddenly you can see clear choices. Worry Worry is closely related to overthinking and it is the third powerful mistake you might make in following through. Worrying is when you ruminate on problems, real or imagined. This takes you out of the present, which you have control over, and puts you into the future or past, which you have zero control over. Worrying steals your control and composure, but taking action and focusing on the present empowers you by letting you get things done now. Try to switch your mindset toward action and solutions rather than problems and mistakes. Furthermore, worrying makes you focus on things that may not even be real and that you cannot change, and you devote time and energy to these worries that you could be spending on work instead. It's a tall task to tell someone to worry less. But the truth is, worrying causes you to suffer twice---once during the worrying and again if the dreaded event actually occurs. And if it doesn't occur, you've just suffered for no reason at all. Worrying can also masquerade as productivity, but again, it is wasted motion. It's a lot of energy spent to get nowhere. Focus on what you can control and do something about. Focus on things that are real and have happened, not imaginary outcomes or scenarios that may never come to pass. Do what you can do at the moment, because that's all you can control; in doing so, carry a mindset of action and control rather than fear. Know Thyself The final major mistake many people make is failing to get to know themselves. Knowing yourself enables you to figure out how to work best and create the most beneficial environments for yourself. Not all people work the same way. One man might like a detailed schedule that lays out every part of his day, while another man needs breathing room and spontaneity. One woman may need a quiet environment where she can work alone while another woman needs friends and a social work environment to thrive in. Like Michael found out, don't impose unrealistic or unsuitable schedules, ideals, or environments on yourself and expect to succeed. Find what is best for you and then implement that to thrive. You can only work best if you are in your best environment. Find what that environment is instead of forcing yourself to conform to something that does not suit you and instead makes you miserable and hinders your productivity. When you use your preferences and strengths to your advantage, you are more likely to follow through. This is because you are allowing yourself to work at your best, at your very peak. You're not fighting yourself and are instead working within your flow and accessing your strengths. You are not making yourself miserable by following someone else's formula for success. Stop judging yourself and others for being different. We are all different. Our productivity is very fragile and requires particular care to flourish. Treat yourself to what helps you thrive if you want to follow through. Figure out what times you work best during the day. Then work during those times. Don't let others judge you for not being functional before 8:00 a.m. or for working late into the night. Working at your best time will enable you to be more productive and follow through more easily because you are using your energy when you have the most of it. Don't try to work early in the morning if you are not a morning person because that will only lead you to failure. There is another component to getting to know yourself: diagnosing why you are failing and fixing the underlying problem. It is diagnosing the cause and source of your lack of follow-through so that you can address it. Only when you determine the cause of your poor follow-through can you actually do something about it. Don't make the common mistake of attributing failure to the wrong cause, or you will never be able to address and correct the issue. Be Sherlock Holmes if you are having trouble with follow-through. Using the power of deduction, deduce what is wrong and why you are not being productive. Maybe you are reading another time management book when you should be keeping a calendar and not wasting time on books. Maybe you are trying to organize and label everything when really you just have too much stuff and need to get rid of some of it. Maybe you are discouraged so you procrastinate and thus keep failing and wondering why your discouragement is growing. Really consider how you feel when you don't follow through. Look at your feelings during the commencement stage of a project and see if you feel overwhelmed or put things off for too long to reasonably finish them. Why do you specifically give up? When you find the reason, you can figure out how to apply one of the rules or mindsets in this book to rectify the problem. Takeaways: Pitfalls to following through and finishing what you start? Too many to name. But a select few in this chapter are stronger and more dangerous than most. False hope syndrome is when you expect that you will be able to change or improve to an unrealistic degree. When you inevitably fail to meet this mark, there is a very real backlash that results in you being even less motivated and disciplined than before you started. To beat this, set proper expectations based on your history and understand the difference between goals and expectations. Overthinking is sneaky because it feels like action and it even feels productive. But it's not. Overthinking is when you fixate and can't seem to take the first step toward action. Zero in on the details that matter, deliberately ignore everything else, and you'll feel much more clarity. Worrying is when you fixate on something and inevitably start drawing out the negative scenarios and pitfalls. However, worrying is also when you fixate on things you can't control while ignoring what you can control---the present. The solution is to focus on what you can do right now and only right now. Do you know yourself? Well, what about in terms of productivity and how you work and produce the best? You can consider time of day, environment, setting, and so on. But you should consider that knowing yourself is also the ability to look at yourself and understand why you may have failed or come up short. It is the ability to self-diagnose and be self-aware. Chapter 8. Daily Systems for Success In Kerry Patterson's book Crucial Conversations, he suggests some of the information you must gather or assess before you embark on any project. Assign responsibility. Ask "Who is responsible for what?" Assign a name to each task that must be completed. This is essential for creating clarity. You want to have a leader, a person in charge of budgeting, a person in charge of marketing, a person in charge of human resources, and so on. For every aspect of your project, find someone who can handle it. If you are handling everything by yourself because you are working solo, then delegate responsibility to yourself by splitting your tasks into different roles and then performing each of those roles separately at different times to ensure you complete them. Specify your desired outcome and expectations. Be very specific about what you want to accomplish and what you expect to do. Having a target outcome can guide you in success by making it clear to you what tasks you have to complete and how you need to work. Specify how much work you want to get done, how many units you want to sell, how much money you want to make, and when you want to meet your goals by. Go ahead and set clear goals that are both reachable and inspiring. For example, you may want to look at previous sales and say, "Okay, we sold 1000 units last month. Let's hit 1200 this month!" Determine the deadline. You probably have a deadline set by your boss or client. If you don't, set one yourself. Nothing will motivate you like a specific date when you must have a project completed by. Deadlines can give you a clear guideline for how to structure your time and when to meet milestones. Make sure to set a realistic deadline---do not promise someone the moon and then not be able to deliver. You want to set a deadline that gives you plenty of room to complete something by, taking into account potential setbacks and challenges that cost you time. Have a follow-up plan. You don't want to think of your current goal as the finish line because life goes on after you reach the goal. What happens after the project? What do you do next? Have a plan for the steps to take once you complete a project and what goals to move on to. This can motivate you as you have more things to look forward to. Also consider following. Gather physical resources. You will need different things to get something done---money, people, software, office supplies, materials. Find out what you need and obtain all of it. Identify obstacles. Knowing the obstacles beforehand can help you determine how to mitigate them. People will have a ton of enthusiasm when they brainstorm ideas; they see only sunshine and are eager to press on. When unexpected obstacles arise, however, their enthusiasm runs out and inertia sets in. If everyone involved knows what to expect and thinks of these obstacles as hurdles to overcome as a team, then morale will not be so heavily impacted. If you see no obstacles in your path, you need to brainstorm more to account for potential pitfalls. Back to our example of poor Ned. Imagine how much easier things would have been for him if he had organized his resources and gathered information first. First, he should have organized his office, putting notes where it would be easy to find them when he needed them. Next, he should have found the software programs that would have let him automate emails, newsletters, quotes, and invoices, which would have lessened the workload he carried by himself. Finally, he should have anticipated the volume of work coming in so that he could have managed his time better and handled his workload more efficiently. He should have set deadlines and made sure to meet them. He could have considered hiring someone else to take on some of his responsibility had he estimated how much work he was going to gain. On top of that, he should have identified challenges and prepared for them, such as having too great of a workload. Then he could have mitigated these challenges with a bit of forethought. Gathering all of these resources beforehand could have saved Ned so much work after he launched his business. Daily systems streamline work and cut down on the amount of willpower you require to plug on in life. They make actions systematic and therefore they encourage progress. You can avoid failure in your life by using systems to implement efficiency and forward progress. Don't be a Ned. Use daily systems to propel yourself into success. Takeaways: Systems are sets of daily behaviors. It doesn't have to be more complex than that. Systems stand in stark contrast to goals because goals are one-off accomplishments, while systems emphasize consistency and long-term success. Keep a scoreboard for everything large and trivial. This keeps you motivated and striving toward growth and progress. Manage your time better by understanding how long things will take in reality and accounting for your own quirks and inefficiencies. Lower your transaction costs by making undesirable behaviors inconvenient and unwieldy while making desirable behaviors convenient and easy. Gather all of the information and materials you need all at once and before you get started. This allows you to work interruption-free and gather momentum. **9 Surprising Psychology Theories That Will Change The Way You Think** Pete Hollins **Striving to improve life from the inside out** Theory One: The Pratfall Effect Theory Two: Reactance Theory This was coined by Brehm in 1966 in his seminal publication, A theory of psychological reactance. Theory Three: Loss Aversion Theory Four: The Clustering Illusion The most prevalent examples of this are the gambler's fallacy and hot hand fallacy. Theory Five: Cognitive Dissonance Theory Leon Festinger developed this theory in 1957. Cognitive dissonance explains why people engage in all sorts of unhealthy behaviors and actions but don't see themselves as unhealthy or needing help Theory Six: Friendship Limits Theory Seven: The Dunning-Kruger Effect The Dunning-Kruger Effect is when incompetent people vastly overestimate their abilities. It's also when competent people underestimate their abilities, but as you can imagine, that's less of a problem Theory Eight: The Urge to Conform This study was conducted by Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College in the 1950s and broadly demonstrated the compulsion to conform and "fit in" despite our best instincts and interests. Theory Nine: The Speed of Wit A 2015 study by William von Hippel called "Quick Thinkers Are Smooth Talkers Mental Speed Facilitates Charisma