The joy of starting something new is one of the most exciting feelings a human being can experience. It doesn’t matter if that thing is a marriage, a business, or a career, beginnings are very exciting. You must have felt this adrenaline rush before. What is rarer in life is the joy of finishing.
Just about anyone can start whatsoever. What separates the men from the boys is the capacity to stay the course and finish strong. The link between a great start and a great finish is what this post is about.
Ease of Beginning
Why are there so many great starts and a few great finishes? The first reason is a matter of ease. Starting just about anything is easy while finishing is hard. Owing to the innate human tendency to travel via the path of least resistance, most of us may find ourselves starting things because of the ease of doing so without giving a thought to what it takes to continue and finish them.
This refusal to thoroughly think through the long term implications of what we are so tempted to start is one reason people give up midway through their dreams, project or journey. I for one have felt the sting and string of unaccomplished projects haunt me as you may have too. We must as such, always remind ourselves that the ease of beginning a thing does not necessarily suggest the ease of the conclusion of the same.
Experimentation
The second reason why many give up on their goals is that they never start things out of firm convictions. Many are in the habit of merely trying their hands on this or that. Sure, there is a place for experimentation in the equation of leadership success, but even experimentation must be at least based upon a conviction regarding a certain hypothesis.
Without firm convictions, one is not likely to survive the dark alleys of hopelessness and contradiction, that our experiments will throw at us. I have become a master detective at spotting a lack of conviction in people starting things. And it doesn’t matter if it is a relationship, a career or a project, I have come to see wobbly convictions or the absence of the same, as a warning sign that the individual will not have what it takes to be around for the long haul.
I have since learned in starting several thriving organisations in my field to take time to be at least reasonably certain about a direction before launching into it. Are you really sure this is what you should be doing for the rest of your life? Are you certain that this is the right thing to do? These are things to ponder before starting anything if you won’t end up as a dropout in life.
Time taken to deepen one’s convictions is not wasted time, particularly for someone in leadership. If you aren’t convinced about a direction, why not take time out to be certain.
Feel free to join me for the Leadership and Lifestyle Conclave every Sunday by 7:30 am at NECA House, Plot A2, Hakeem Balogun Street, Central Business District, Alausa Ikeja.
