Finish What You Start: The Art of Following Through, Taking Action, Executing, & Self-Discipline

“So much to do, and not enough time to do it.”

A clean desk can help create a clear mind, and a clear mind is much more able to remain disciplined.

If your heart is not fit enough to run the length of it, then you will find yourself stopping halfway through and giving up before you reach the finish line.

And much like how each smaller robot forms a different body part in the big robot, so too does each of these four elements—focus, self-discipline, action, and persistence—correspond to a body part that, when pieced with the others, forms the whole of following through.

Make undesired behaviors cost too much. Train yourself to view bad behavior as something that is too expensive to engage in. For example, raise the costs of unproductive behavior by forcing yourself to climb five flights of stairs to smoke or eat chocolate or browse your phone.

Particularly in business, there will be days when the inertia is too heavy and you don’t feel like performing the tasks on your to-do list. There will be tasks that you dread doing and thus can’t summon the necessary willpower. And there will even be people who try to block your success, and you may not always have the strength to fight them off.

That is where daily systems come into play.

Particularly in business, there will be days when the inertia is too heavy and you don’t feel like performing the tasks on your to-do list

making your intentions reality

Overthinking is when you fixate and can’t seem to take the first step toward action. Zero in on the details that matter, deliberately ignore everything else, and you’ll feel much more clarity.
Worrying is when you fixate on something and inevitably start drawing out the negative scenarios and pitfalls. However, worrying is also when you fixate on things you can’t control while ignoring what you can control—the present. The solution is to focus on what you can do right now and only right now.

Be Sherlock Holmes if you are having trouble with follow-through. Using the power of deduction, deduce what is wrong and why you are not being productive.