It’s a fair question. Most of us fall into one category or the other, and the answer is usually found in the basement. If you stash projects that never get finished into storage containers because you want to finish them, but something else has required your attention, you may be a starter. If you are full of great ideas, you just may be a starter. If you love new ideas more than making them happen, you most probably are a starter. The question is…do you want to remain a starter?
Starters work better as employees who require supervision. They need direction. Their tendency to never finish a project is accepted by a boss who is changeable and too busy to notice. Starters do not make good entrepreneurs…so let me ask you again: Do you like working for yourself? Do you like setting your own hours and being your own boss? If the answer is yes, and if you are a starter, you need a wee makeover to ensure your own success. You can most definitely hone your work ethic into one with dividends.
- Begin with practice. Pick a project and finish it. Just do it. Reward yourself when it’s done and make it a holiday. Pick another. That practice is building within your brain neural pathways of success.
- Hide the remote. Remove distractions and eye candy. It’s not a forever type of punishment, but a short-term application of blinders to help you become more productive.
- Find an accountability partner. Your old mom knows you inside and out and is your biggest advocate. A good friend is genuinely happy for your success. Find that someone who will be honest with you and celebrate with you on your most productive days.
- Learn to value the process more than the outcome. Starters love the idea of success, but finishers like to see it happen. When you shift your focus just a few degrees, great things begin to happen.
Your value as a merchandising rep rests on your ability to finish a task. Your new persona may embrace a different way of looking at things, and it’s one in which this side gig may be a springboard into owning your own business. In this world, each of us has the opportunity of becoming what we want to be, achieving what we want for ourselves. There are no gifts and no magic wands. No one owes you success and only you can deprive yourself of its benefits.
If being an employee isn’t your highest goal in life, learn to be a finisher!
