The foolproof, no-fail guide to finishing what you start

I’ve got the fool-proof way to finish what you start.

It has worked for me, every time.

It’s pretty simple.

It’s just not...easy.

It’s this: If you really want to finish what you start, tell the truth about your life.

“I want to start meditating daily, but I just don’t have the motivation.”

“Every time I start exercising regularly, I do it for awhile and then I just quit.”

“I keep buying self-help stuff and then I never use it. I never finish e-courses.” Mmmmk.

Got it. Now: start telling the truth about your life.

What’s it costing you not to...meditate? Exercise? Buy shit you never use or finish? What would you gain if you did...meditate? Exercise? Buy shit that you truly utilize and finish?

It's not discipline

I’m a runner, the sport most people equate with masochism. I love running, but I hate running (paradoxically). I hate it because it’s hard, but that’s why I love it, too.

How is it that I can find the so-called “discipline” to run? It's not actually discipline.

Pretty simple: I think of what it’ll cost me not to run. I think of how I’ll feel like crap, or how I’ll be annoyed with myself later, for not running.

I think of what I would gain if I did run. I think of how I’ll feel great afterwards, because I always do.

That’s how I finish what I start. That’s how I stick with it.

I tell the truth about my life.

Or--Quitting gluten and dairy. "Oh, that's so hard," people say to me, all of the time.

Sure, there were challenging moments. But--what was it costing me to eat them? I was sick. Eating gluten and dairy was making me sicker. All I had to do to remember that was have a few bites. Within an hour, I'd feel it.

What did I gain from not eating them? Energy. More vitality. More ease.

I gained my life.

That was the truth. All I need to do whenever I'm tempted to eat something that will make me sick is--tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.

When we tell the truth, it's really hard--damned near impossible--to take whatever action would perpetuate the lie. The lie, in this case is: "It doesn't really matter whether or not I choose the action that I know is best for me."

Start telling the truth, and you are already staring down that lie.

You don't have to be perfect.

I don’t absolutely finish everything that I start, of course.

Any time the answer to either of those questions--What will it cost me if I don’t do it? or What will I gain if I do do it? is met with the answer “Nothing,” I pay attention to that.

Those are things that aren’t worth finishing.

But the things that are worth finishing to you? You already know what they are. They’re probably more important things than starting some exercise program in the new year. They’re probably things like... 

• Practice more compassion.

• Get reconnected with myself.

• Stop fighting that same fight with my partner.

• Quit saying “yes” to more commitments when I’m already so overwhelmed.

People wonder how it is that they can have the best of intentions to change their lives, and then nothing changes.

This is it--again, very simple, just not easy: start telling the truth about your life.

Tell the truth about what it will cost you to quit.

Tell the truth about what it will give you to stick with it.

It won’t be perfect. You will have slip-ups. Tell the truth about those, too. (“I slipped up because...” “It wouldn’t do me any good to beat myself up over this, because...”).

Congratulations. You are now on the way to real, effective, and long-lasting life change.