5 Habits that Stop You From Finishing What You Start

Have You Been Derailed?

Not finishing what we start is frustrating. Usually, it is something that we want. So, to not finish feels bad. Whether we quit halfway through a project, academic course or even learning a new hobby, we have to admit that we’re left feeling that we’ve failed ourselves – as well as others sometimes.

Not seeing things through to completion should never become a habit. You can avoid this by breaking a number of habits that cause not finishing to become a habit!

Check out these 5 common habits to avoid or break if you want to become a consistent finisher.

Procrastination

A habitual procrastinator is more likely to quit without finishing. First, because procrastination is a big motivation-sapper. Second, procrastination leads to endless delays and feet dragging, creating boredom and stress because things don’t move forward fast enough. If you’re a procrastinator, the only way to break the habit is to just do it!

When you find yourself thinking, “I’m too tired today, I’ll do it tomorrow” or “There’s no rush, I can finish it later”, kill the thought by getting up and doing it.

Making Excuses

When things go wrong or we find ourselves struggling, we get so frustrated that we look for excuses to throw in the towel. We tend to blame other people (whom usually perceive as being difficult or uncooperative). We blame a lack of resources or sufficient information. We justify not finishing due to sudden changes or unexpected situations.

Just like breaking the habit of procrastination, breaking this habit requires sheer willpower. Let your mantra be ‘no excuses’ and over time, it will become a permanent mindset. Instead, you’ll see problems and obstacles as challenges that you are eager to overcome.

Seeking Perfection

Insisting on perfection can be a big time waster as well as a huge stressor. It often involves a lot of redoes and mulling over whether you’ve achieved the perfect result.

Perfectionists hate delegating as well, and feel that they need to do everything themselves in order to get it ‘just right’. Being unable to achieve perfection often becomes an excuse for not finishing.

Your best bet is to simply give the task at hand your best dedicated effort and know that your best is good enough.

Miscommunication

A misunderstanding due to bad communication can lead to a major derailment. When that happens, it can be too late to resolve the issue, causing you to abandon a task or project completion.

Always make sure that you listen intently to others, wrote down instructions and ask questions about anything you’re unsure about. Likewise, make sure that you communicate clearly to others, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

Bad Planning

Unrealistic goals and deadlines, and bad time management are examples of bad planning that can kill your motivation in the middle of a task or project. Unrealistic unmanageable goals or goals not broken down into achievable milestones will slow down your momentum.

Always plan in advance and plan well. Assess your progress regularly to make sure you’re on track, make modifications or catch any issues early on.

Breaking these 5 habits can tremendously change your approach to starting and finishing what you start. Shedding these habits will help you stay motivated, stress-free and purposeful. If you’ve been practicing them, it’s high time to break them and become a finisher every time! Create a new practice!! Practice the habits that help you to be a finisher.