Hey, it's Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business
and life you love, and this is Q&A Tuesday.
Today's question comes from Andes and he writes:
"Hi, Marie.
Thank you for your inspiring Q&A Tuesdays.
I'm a man and absolutely your fan.
My Q is I'm usually starting different projects in business and personal development with
great passion, but as a rule, sooner or later, I get bored with them.
Could you advise on how to keep my sparkling eyes?
Have a fantastic day and thank you."
-- Andes from Latvia
Andes, rocking question.
I heard this many different ways from all different people.
Follow through is a habit; plain and simple.
The reason you don't follow through is because you have the habit yet.
Here's the good news; you can make it a habit and here are three tips to get you going.
Tip #1 -- Stop expecting your eyes to sparkle.
There's this notion that the act of creation should be joyful and fun and full of pixie
dust and fields of daisy diamonds.
I don't even know what that means but it's bull hickey.
The act of creation is hard, Andes, you got to get this.
It is hard my brother.
Every creator I know struggles to finish things and here's the deal; most people are amateurs
when it comes to creating so unfortunately they quit before the work gets done, but not
you Andes.
You got to turn pro.
You got to do the work and do it until it's finished.
You want to know what my eyes sometimes when I'm creating?
They bleed because it's freaking hard.
Here's the deal; if you want to be successful at anything in life, you have to follow through,
and sometimes, that means pushing through even when things are a little unsparkly.
Tip #2 -- Start with your little balls.
Take a look at how you roll throughout your day.
For example, do you complete what you start or do you have a bunch of half done messes
all over the place?
In other words, are you dropping the ball in all kinds of little ways?
Here's the deal, Andes; if you can't handle your little balls, what are you going to do
with your big balls?
Here's what I suggest.
When you're writing an e-mail, don't half finish one and then start another one; follow
through and complete one e-mail at a time, or when you're paying your bills, don't pay
some of your bills and leave the rest of the pile till later; get it all done.
May sound trite but important habits like follow through are built one small ball at
a time.
But seriously, this is all about the compound effect of simple daily choices.
When you commit to not dropping your small balls, your big balls handle themselves.
Tip #3 -- Don't make it optional.
Have you noticed that when you have to do something, you just do it, whether it's showing
up for work or getting a project done for a client or getting your passport renewed?
When you have no option, you just get it done; you follow through.
The reason most of us don't follow through is because we give ourselves options not to.
We think that a promise to ourselves doesn't count as much as a promise to someone else.
Now strap yourselves in because here comes a massive tweetable:
"If you want to be responsible, keep your promises to others.
If you want to be successful, keep your promises to yourself."
And now, a bonus tip -- Put yourself on a project diet.
Let's be real here, can we?
You and I both know that creative folk like us, we go on project binges.
We walk up to the project buffet and think it's all-you-can-eat.
No!
You are going on a project diet right now.
You can only do one project at a time.
You cannot put anything else on your plate until you finish that one project.
You've got to get in the habit of taking on one thing and finishing it before you take
on anything else.
In other words, stay away from the buffet.
There you go, Andes.
Your Q just got A'ed.
Obviously, there's a lot more we could talk about when it comes to follow through, but
these strategies will definitely get you started.
Now I really want to hear from you.
What's the single most effective strategy you've used to stay focused and follow through?
As always the best discussions happen after the episode over at MarieForleo.com so go
there and leave a comment now.
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Thank you so much for watching and I'll catch you next time on MarieTV.