For This Race, Where is Your Finish Line?
Posted by Shawn on November 23, 2008
Can you imagine running in a race where you do not know where the finish line is? Imagine now that there is a substantial reward for winning the race. Your competition varies in talent, but you all have a chance of winning if you can guess where the finish line is and adjust your running pace to ensure you will be in the lead come the finish line. Does this sound like your everyday life, or something so ridiculous that you cannot fathom it ever occurring?
Everyday each of us is faced with challenges. How many of these have a finish line, or in other words, a completion state? How do you know when you are done? How much more effective will you be if you know what “done” looks like for your task or project?
Take the following example. If I plan to exercise and my plan consists of running 2 miles and 10 reps of weights, I can measure how far I have run and stop at 2 miles. I can also count to 10 reps of weights and stop once I have reached it. If this is my goal for my workout and I achieve it I feel satisfied. If I show up and just start randomly using weight machines and the treadmill I may get just as good of a workout, but I might not put the same effort in each event until I know what my goal is. I may leave tired, but feeling that I missed something I should have done. I could not hit the finish line because I did not define it.
If you apply this to work or home, it will force you to first define the finish line. If your plan is to clean the garage on Saturday at what point can you stop? Rather than trying to complete everything make your finish line one task, such as cleaning off your workbench, organizing your tools, or putting all the lose items in clearly marked storage containers. Once you define this “done” point, you will be able to more clearly focus on the one task at hand and complete it. After it is completed you can be done for the day, or pick another finish line to achieve while you are at it.
Remember also, a 100 meter dash finish line is much easier to reach then a 5KM or a marathon distance finish line. But every task cannot be quick and easy. You will need to longer focused tasks and projects that take much longer to accomplish. Do what any good runner will do - create splits. Only you can call them milestones. As long as you always can identify the finish line for the task at hand you will be both in good shape and more successful in your accomplishments.
