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1-Page Summary of Finish

Perfectionism Kills

It’s hard to get started on big tasks, but it’s easier than finishing them. Many people make New Year’s resolutions that they don’t keep because 92% of those intentions fail and fall apart.

A best-selling author named Jon Acuff was trying to figure out why he wasn’t able to finish his projects. He thought it was because of laziness or a lack of hustle, but then an academic researcher asked if he could use Acuff’s course to study goal setting. The survey showed that those who finished the course were 27% more likely to achieve their goals than they had been before taking the course. It also showed that people should not aim for perfection in order to be productive and complete their goals.

“The Day After Perfect”

After reading Timothy Ferriss’s book, The 4-Hour Body, Acuff decided to try a new diet. He vowed to get serious about exercising. Ferriss recommends eating eggs, spinach and black beans for breakfast every day for 12 days straight. Acuff went to Costco because it sells black beans by the pallet (a large container of something). He bought in bulk so that he could eat black beans for breakfast for the next 12 days straight. By Day 13, he quit because he got busy or didn’t want to follow through or just forgot about it. But once Acuff broke the daily routine, he found himself uninterested in starting again since his record wasn’t perfect and stopped completely after one failure. “This is a surprisingly common reaction,” says author Timothy Ferris who also wrote The 4-Hour Body.

People often use this kind of language to explain why they’ve given up on their goals: “I fell behind and couldn’t get back on track,” or “Life got in the way, and my plans got derailed.” These excuses are just an excuse for perfectionism. You weren’t perfect, so you gave up. Everyone wants straight A’s, but nobody aims for B’s or C’s because it seems too challenging. If you aim for perfection, then you won’t even start your goal because it seems like a daunting task. To finish your goals quickly and easily, simply start them immediately without worrying about making mistakes along the way. Even if you make mistakes while working toward your goal on day 1, don’t let that stop you from finishing.

Fifty-Percent Complete

If you want to achieve your goal, set a reasonable target. For example, if you’re trying to lose 10 pounds in 30 days, try losing six. If you’re trying to write daily blog posts for 30 days but only manage 300 words per day on average, try writing 100 words per day instead and see how that goes.

If you’re trying to reach a goal, but it’s too big for the time period you’ve set, try cutting your timeline in half or doubling it. In some cases, this will help you achieve your goal; however, if not and bankruptcy is an option for you then don’t do this because that isn’t a good idea. You can use these two tactics on many goals as long as they are reasonable and achievable. If something is impossible then don’t bother with it at all.

Workplace Goals

Research shows that setting realistic goals leads to better performance than setting overly aggressive targets. However, in the workplace, you don’t always have control over the timeline of your goals. Therefore, it’s important to talk with your boss about what is and isn’t achievable when creating new goals for a project or task. One company took 20 years to make $5 million in revenue on a product; however, they had set an unrealistic goal of making $5 million within five years on another product. After a year of frustration from employees who were not able to meet their expectations for this goal, management changed the expectation multiple times until they ultimately scrapped it altogether. It’s important that companies create reasonable timelines and goals from the beginning so everyone can be successful together down the road.