Book Discussion: Finish, Part 4 – The Day before Done and Perfectionism’s Final Roadblocks

What if deep down you are afraid of achieving a goal? Could the fear of success be the very thing that motivates you to abandon your goal? What could you be getting by not finishing? With the finish line in sight, perfectionism throws up its final roadblocks. To reach the end, we must address the fears of what’s next, what now, and the fear of things not being perfect once we achieve the goal. We can also architect a work environment and choose a data collection method to support positive progress based on previous successes and failures. In episode 275, we’re joined by guest host Jason Gass to discuss the following chapters from Finish by Jon Acuff and provide some final thoughts as this series comes to a close: Chapter 7: Use Data to Celebrate Your Imperfect Progress Chapter 8: The Day before Done Original Recording Date: 04-07-2024 Topics – A Book Discussion Series, How You Work Best and Some is Better than Perfect, Chapter 8: The Day before Done, Final Thoughts A Book Discussion Series This is part 3 of a book discussion series centered on Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff. If you missed part 1 of our discussion, check out Episode 272.In that first episode we discussed the following topics: Reasons Jason Gass (our special guest host in this series) recommended the book Chapter 1 – The Day after Perfect Chapter 2 – Cut Your Goal in Half If you missed part 2 of our discussion, check out Episode 273. In that second episode in the series we discussed: Chapter 3 – Choose What to Bomb Chapter 4 – Make It Fun if You Want It Done Chapter 5 – Leave Your Hiding Places and Ignore Noble Obstacles If you missed part 3 of our discussion, check out Episode 274. In that third episode in the series we discussed: Chapter 6 – Get Rid of Your Secret Rules Chapter 7 – Use Data to Celebrate Your Imperfect Progress 3:34 – How You Work Best and Some is Better than Perfect The next section discussed the idea of learning how you work best. John says this is more of a focused example of answering questions about the last time you tried a goal and whether you were successful or not. Acuff gives the example of people working well on planes. It may not be that for all of us. What specifically about the environment of being on a plane led to success? We can brainstorm on that for a second. Maybe it was the set start and end time, a poor internet connection, white noise, ease of focusing on work instead of socialization, etc. For Nick it was helpful to work at a Starbucks. What was it about the coffee shop that led to more progress toward a goal than perhaps working at home did? Maybe it was the ground coffee smell, the white noise of background chatter, no television in walking distance to act as a distraction, the unlikelihood of running into someone Nick knows, working from a single screen, etc. Maybe Nick could re-create part of that environment from Starbucks at home or when working from somewhere else (the sounds, the smells, etc.). Jason mentions the day