Finishing boosts confidence

0:03 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that finishing boosts confidence. If you've got some projects that could get done with a push, consider doing just that. Knowing that you can finish what you set out to do can make all challenging things in life feel more doable. Today's tip was inspired by my interview with Kim Purcell, who was recently a guest on this show.

0:46 Her new book, Write a Novel in 100 Days, is about how to take your story from idea to rough draft. Yes, the draft will need some work. That is the reality of rough drafts. But with the right structure in place, your book probably won't need to be completely rewritten. When we were talking, Kim mentioned that finishing boosts confidence. And I agree. A lot of motivational literature is about starting things.

1:19 A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But I actually don't think people need inspiration to start things. Starting things is relatively easy. What's hard is sticking with them, somewhere around the 800,000th step, when the beginning is far in the rearview mirror, and you can't yet see the finish line. But all things end, and if you make steady progress on most things, you will finish. Knowing you can persist through that mushy middle makes all hard things seem doable. So identify some projects you've got that are in the middle and think through what it would take to get to the end. Could you finish that photo book?

2:11 Clean out the home office so it can become your actual home office? Complete the prescribed training plan and run a 10K? Figure out what it would take and then carve out the time to do the steps to do it. Don't get just close to the end. Get to the actual end. Get that photo book shipped to you. Work your first shift in the home office at a real desk.

2:37 Sign up for the 10K. And get yourself to the finish line. When you do these things, you will realize that all big projects are really just a series of smaller steps. Sometimes those small steps are tricky or uncertain, but anyone who has finished any sort of big project has had to complete smaller steps to get there. They did it. You can too. And when you do, you'll realize that you can do big things. Your next big project will also just be a series of small steps that you can finish in sequence. Time passes one way or another. Keep moving forward, and you will get there.

3:29 So look at what you have going on right now and see if there is something in progress that you could get to done. What would that look like? How many steps stand between you and finished? How long would those steps take? Can you do them? Do you need more resources? How can you find them? You might be best off focusing on one thing at a time and pushing it over the hill. Then you can go back and put all your effort into the next thing. knowing you have a track record of success. Finishing boosts confidence.

4:07 Whatever the next thing is, you can do this. After all, you know you have done it before. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening. And here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.