[Choices] Don’t Finish Bad Cookies!

Mar

Don’t Finish Bad Cookies!

Did you know that finishing can be BAD for you?

Shocked Reader: “What?! Seriously Tanya – bait and switch! You are always going on about how Alphas are Great Starters and POOR Finishers! I just got my ‘I FINISH’ tattoo!”

No worries. Finishing is still sacred in my world, however I have to teach you about the exception to the rule.

Don’t finish things that are:

1) Crappy

2) a Distraction from a prior clear purpose or

3) You should never have started.

Ego tries to get you to do these things because you will fail, spin or never find what you SHOULD be doing.

I started knitting a hat with some beautiful and funky yarn. Turns out, this yarn kept changing sizes from poofy to super thin. It was a royal pain in the arse to knit with. Know what? I stopped. I stopped 2 inches into my hat and said Hell No. Not gonna do it.

This goes DOUBLE for cookies. I stopped eating “average” desserts. Sugar is bad for you, so why should I waste my precious sugar allotment on average cookies?

Ego WANTS you to use my “Finish It” coaching on the wrong things!

Ok. Now for the million dollar question: How Do You Know When You Should Finish or Not?

I don’t have a bright line rule for you (wish I did.) It’s case by case. I don’t want you to bail on things just because they make you “feel bad.” I DO want you to dig under that bad feeling.

Are you working on something that you’ve promised yourself you’d do? Often you need to push through your resistance to finish because otherwise you set up a Pattern and Habit of not finishing.

Are you distracting yourself from some dreaded task? That’s likely to be a trap.

Ask yourself what will you gain by finishing this? Sometimes just building your “finishing muscle” is more than enough reason.

In the meantime, in the very least stop finishing bad cookies, movies or men! It is OK for you to declare that your time and happiness are worth more right NOW.

Miscellaneous other things to put on the chopping block? Bad shoe purchases (so what they are new- you DON’T like them or wear them!), crappy business partners (this won’t get better) and things you are chasing that are NOT worth catching.

If you are Efforting (“Effort is the NEW Problem“) and it’s not working, you might need to stop and start over. Be okay with not finishing something that is not good for you…

Ask Tanya if I’ve got a “Bad Cookie”

P.S. Big benefit to this idea? It gets you ASKING, “Should I finish this or not?” BEFORE you are done! So you can start catching wiggly decisions SOONER and save your energy for important things!

Your learning to say NO to things in progress but not working requires great self-love.