The Joy of Finishing.

It is that time of the year again when we analyze the direction of our lives. The new year is synonymous with a new beginning, goals, wishes and intentions. The challenge for most of us is not the starting part; the most significant challenge we all face is maintaining the momentum when the initial motivation wanes out, and we need the self-discipline to execute our goals. As the saying goes, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” Starting is great but finishing what you is also better. The art of finishing is very satisfying and joy-inducing. It is like the joy one encounters when you finish a marathon. I did run nine full marathons and two half-marathons in 2023 and it is by far one of the most joy-inclined activity that I have experienced in my entire life.

Messy and Finished beats perfect and incomplete every time.

According to studies ¹, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. Every January, people start with hope and hype, believing that this will be the New Year that does indeed deliver a New You. But though 100 percent start only 8 percent finish. Statistically, you’ve got the same shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina as you do at finishing your goals. Their acceptance rate is about 8 percent, tiny dancer.

If you want to finish, you’ve got to do all that you can to get rid of your perfectionism right out of the gate. You’ve got to have fun, cut your goal in half, choose what things you’ll bomb, and a few other actions you won’t see coming at first.

Trying to finish any goal is like running uphill. At the top is the finish line and in the middle it feels so far away. If you stare up the hill, it’s easy to get discouraged. You’ll never reach that moment. Fitting into that old dress feels impossible. An empty, clean garage you can park in seems unreachable. Seeing your finished book on a real shelf in a real bookstore feels unrealistic. The distance is simply too much.

The closer you get to finishing, the more interesting everything else in your life becomes. It’s as if you’ve put on distraction goggles. Things you never noticed pop up and dance tantalizingly across your vision.

The Four Elements of Follow Through – focus, self-discipline, action, and persistence ²

The head: focus.

Following through involves having focus. It’s akin to the head because it is focus that keeps your head in the game and your eyes on the prize. Focus guides your thoughts in figuring out how to follow through and directs your actions toward achieving your vision.

If you are focused on what you need to do, self-discipline will naturally follow. Likewise, if you are self-disciplined, it will be easier for you to focus on what needs to be done and avoid distractions.

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.

Without self-discipline, you wouldn’t be able to consistently exert effort on something until it’s done, which is what following through is all about.

The hands and feet: action.

Action, the hands and feet of following through, means prioritizing execution and simple motion. This is what makes following through more than just having focus and self-discipline. Following through is an intention that’s been translated into action. It is action that will move things in the real world and take you from Point A to Point B—that is, from where you are now to where the fulfillment of your goals lies.

The heart: persistence.

Finally, at the heart of following through is persistence. Persistence is firmly sticking to something for a prolonged period of time, even as you encounter things that try to unstick you. It’s the tenacity to adhere to a course of action even in the face of obstacles. It is not enough to just start; you need stick with it until it’s done. Following through is about having enough heart to keep pushing even in the face of obstacles, distractions, and setbacks.

Many of the goals worth aiming for in life call for not just a sprint but a marathon. If your heart is not fit enough to run the length of it, then you will find yourself stopping halfway through and giving up before you reach the finish line.

2023 was my best year in fitness and consistency. I derived a lot of joy from the result I saw from consistently showing up and finishing various routines. I trained and intensified my workouts which made me break multiple personal records which included reducing my marathon finish time from 3hrs 44 minutes to 3 hours 20 minutes. Reducing my marathon finish time required finishing multiple laps, run, swims, works and drills. Most days, it was a slog to go out running but because I know how I felt after every run, the joy of the endorphin and dopamine release gets me going and ultimately finishing.

It took a lot of hardwork to run the nine full marathons in 2023. Some months where tougher than the others as I did run four full marathons in the month of may. Somedays my body wanted to give up but what kept me going was the joy of reaching the finish line and getting the medal around my neck. Running one full marathon in a year is extremely and running nine in a year is even tougher on the body. It is not about the marathon runs at the end of the day, it is about what I became in the process of running the marathons. It gave me more confidence to believe more in my abilities and the determination to use the lessons learned in other areas of my life. How you do one thing is ultimately how you do everything.

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Patience

The more opportunities we have to practice patience, the more it strengthens in us. To do this, we first have to recognize that impatience has a reason.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Reclaim What’s Lost

Sometimes our situation changes and it causes us to lose access to what we previously lost. Once we identify what we miss about that old experience, place or time; we can usually figure out a way to fill in the gap. Life is constantly shifting, even positive changes can have some drawbacks.