By Neil Phillips.

Anyone can get started.  I do it hundreds of times every day and I bet that most of you do as well.  The key is figuring out how to finish.

During the summer, it’s even harder to push through to the finish.  There are so many competing interests that you can easily find themselves pulled away from their primary goal.  Your kids want you to play, you want to play, and the work still has to get done.  Think of all the things going on in your life right now:  graduations, weddings, summer sports, vacations, conference, daily work (have to pay for all this, right?), home remodeling, and on and on and on.  Every day you set a list of priorities and plan to finish.  Then, life happens.

This is a list of ten different things that my coaching clients have generated to help themselves finish.  You pick your priorities.  These strategies may help you follow through to accomplishments.

Reward Progress. On long term goals, find a reward that you can give yourself in the middle to inspire your finish. PS: Let your kids help you set a goal and a reward for them.

Punish Stagnation. Do something you really hate if you don’t make progress.  For example, bow down to your spouse or donate money to a political party.

Create a small first step. What can you finish in the next 30 minutes?

Take a giant leap. What’s the one thing that will leapfrog you ahead?

Take the day off—officially. Might as well claim it as a vacation day!

Do everything else. Once you remove all of the other “work” reasons for the delay, you’ll leave yourself no choice but to work on the “right” things.

Paint that fence, Tom Sawyer! Start the job, pretend that you are having a good time, and see who volunteers to play along.

Give up for now. What opportunities are you missing because you are stuck on this project?  Put it on the shelf, find something you will do, and come back for it later.

Make it a face issue. Tell everyone you can that you aren’t doing anything else until this project is done.  Then you can’t wuss out.

Talk to a coach. This is really not self-serving.  Talk through your situation with someone.  As you talk, you will discover what the real speed bump is.

As you can tell, some of the items on the list are contradictory.  (Guess that shows how there is no one “right answer!)  Find the one that fits you in your current situation, and then go for it.

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