Would you stop watching an exciting film you hadn’t seen before and say “I don’t want to see how this ends”?
And what would you think of an athlete who pulled up a few yards from the finish line, saying “that’s far enough for me.”?
You’d probably think them rather odd, to say the least. And yet this sort of behaviour is depressingly familiar amongst the owners of small businesses.
They have a great idea, embark on it with gusto, putting in lots of hours of hard work and then, just as they’re getting close to completion, they ease off or stop working on it altogether.
Look around your business. Do you have a graveyard of ‘nearly finished’ projects?
If you do, this could be another manifestation of that dreaded productivity enemy – Perfectionism! Its other common disguise is when it stops us from starting a task in the first place. But there’s more to it than that.
So what does cause us to pull up before the finishing line? What’s really behind this self-sabotaging behaviour?
- It could be that we’re afraid the finished result won’t be good enough and others might not like it.
- We might be ridiculed and lose face.
- Or in true entrepreneurial spirit, we may be ‘bored’ with it already and eager to get started on the next exciting project.
- We may be fearful that our finished product or service is a runaway success – and that success will somehow change the way people we care about think of us.
- And, if it is a success, are we setting ourselves up to have to do even better next time?
With all these destructive possibilities chattering away in our minds, it’s no wonder we’re sometimes fearful of crossing the finish line!
But that’s what successful people do – like the famous book title – they ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway’! They take the risk that people might not like it or that they might be a total flop. For them, success will change things for the better and spur them on to greater achievements.
Successful people don’t quit before the end.
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