At the time I first hired Steve Chandler in 2014 I didn’t have a great track record of finishing projects.
Now that’s not to say I didn’t finish anything but often if there was a project that seemed to be less interesting to me, whether it was in my personal or my professional life, I’d often avoid it until I hoped it would go away.
This left me with a long line of unfinished projects. Both at work and at home.
One thing that Steve helped me see is that completing projects is not a genetic thing. It’s not a skill that you’re born with or not. It’s something that can be developed.
He helped me build my muscle of completing projects.
The way we did this is by starting to complete things that were outstanding and slowly building the muscle. I would start with small things that were easy to do and build on that.
The behaviour of not completing a project was something that I’d also developed every time I didn’t complete a project and left things unfinished. I was reinforcing that behaviour for future endeavours. It was also keeping my self-esteem low because I was proving to myself that my word to complete something didn’t mean much. I would often not follow through on my word because I thought that only I would know. I valued my own words and commitments less than what other people might think, thus telling myself I was less important than others.
In the longer term realising this made me more mindful about what projects I started, because I realised I didn’t want to take on things that I didn’t really want to complete. That’s not always possible but I started to say NO to a lot more things.
Over time, this muscle of completion got stronger and stronger and so did my self-esteem and realisation that I am a powerful creator and I can accomplish a lot more in the world than I realise.
With love and appreciation,
Ankush Jain
Coach and Author of Sweet Sharing – Rediscovering the REAL You
