Four Takeaways from "Finish"
We Finished Finish For You And Here’s What You Need To Know
Finish is not a book about finishing.
It’s a book about perfectionism.
Jon Acuff’s Finish, published in 2017, breaks down perfection as a universal problem that keeps everyone from finishing, methodically labels several signals of perfectionism, and then provides strategies to prevent this human inclination from derailing our ability to reach goals.
Finish is a crushable read written in conversational prose, allowing the simple observations to sneak up and call you out for being dum-dum without laying on the shame. We’re all groomed to seek perfection but often fail to recognize the perfection-seeking urges- Acuff makes that reality completely understandable.
We chose this book to read at Learn to Scale because first-time entrepreneurs in particular are highly at risk for perfectionism. Part of the journey to becoming a seasoned entrepreneur is to identify the signs of perfectionism: failure is part of the magic behind successful businesses. We have a whole podcast about that.
Listed below are the four key takeaways from Finish to help you identify and subvert those persnickety perfectionist tendencies.
1 - Supersized Heroic Goals
If it’s not impressive, it’s not worth pursuing, right? Problem number one is making a goal epic, never done before, and so ambitious that heaps of failure are inevitable (and adds heaps of risk that you’ll give up).
There’s nothing wrong with a BHAG- Big Hairy Audacious Goal- but the milestones to get there should be attainable. Odds are you’re overconfident in your ability to execute.
Actually, it’s a statistical certainty.
Perfectionism drives us to set the bar high because a low bar seems inconsequential. Perfectionism also hides the reality that you’re going to fumble on your way to the end zone. Social media in particular elevates this airbrushed polished scripted excellence: for every beautifully framed pumpkin spice latte on Instagram or carefully curated LinkedIn humblebrag, there are 20 slightly off-center pictures and a team of copywriters following a humblebrag formula.
Antidote: Cut your goals in half. Whatever they are, cut them down by 50% or increase the time allotted to complete them by 100%. Accept crappy results in pursuit of a modest goal: you’ll get better with practice.
2 - Your Goal Is Lame
A goal that other people think is good may not be good for you. If it’s not something that you logically and emotionally want to achieve, your perfectionism WILL find a way to distract you. You could call it your motivational saboteur, your evil homunculus, or your id, but whatever you call it, it’s smarter than your peer-pressure-driven initial motivation.
If you pick a goal that you intrinsically value, then your likelihood of success goes up by an order of magnitude. Even if the goal is a long-term outcome you seek to achieve, it’s in your best interest to reframe or reposition the intermediate milestones into a form that is motivating and fun.
In short, the path to a goal should be fun as hell.
Antidote: Harness reward motivation and fear motivation:
Reward motivation is the motivational drive towards an outcome. Gaining status from peers, looking svelte, and earning leisure money are all reward motivators.
Fear motivation is the motivational drive away from a negative or painful situation. Not being seen as a failure, not fitting into your pants, and FOMO are all fear motivators.
Acuff specifically does not rank one motivation as better or worse: they’re two forces that help us get stuff done. If your goal isn’t fun, the lack of reward motivation won’t get you off the couch. If gaining pounds doesn’t make you feel bad enough to do something about it, you’ll also skip leg day.
See also: temptation bundling.
3 - You’d Rather Clean Than Do That Hard Thing
Do you ever clean the baseboards in your home? It’s a minor detail that suddenly seems very important when you have a deadline.
Acuff labels two kinds of avoidance behaviors that stem from our fears of not being perfect: Hiding Places and Noble Obstacles.
A Hiding Place is where we sink our time to avoid facing failure. A Hiding Place is something, when looking at the Importance Urgency Matrix, that usually is Not Important and Not Urgent:
This is also called the Eisenhower Matrix.
When our goal is looming, it floats from Not Urgent into Urgent. The baseboards…they’re watching you. They whisper, “Cleaning me will help you focus on your goal.”
Don’t trust those baseboards- they’re a Hiding Place.
A Noble Obstacle delivers avoidance behaviors strategically, which makes it more difficult to identify. Noble Obstacles appear to be smart investments of time to set the stage, purchase the right equipment, lay foundations for scaling, and anything else that ostensibly will deliver a superior outcome but ends up being anything EXCEPT working on your goal. Examples can include:
Making a detailed analysis of audio equipment, software, and intro music options instead of sitting down and recording your first podcast.
Interviewing athletes about 3-point line techniques instead of shooting hoops to try to hit a 3-pointer.
Creating the best-ever project plan that takes up more time than just starting the project.
Antidotes: Hiding Places disappear when they become contingent upon completing the goal, “I won’t clean the baseboards until after I go to the gym.” Hiding Places also can be anticipated by practicing strategic incompetence, i.e. planning to fail/be incompetent at something. Accept that you are strategically incompetent at cleaning and instead finish that novel.
Noble Obstacles are good when they make a task easier and simpler. Buying an all-in-one podcast kit that makes podcasting dead simple is a worthy noble obstacle. Combined with cutting your goal in half, quickly achieving a smaller goal will will jazz you up to tackle a larger goal. However, be careful that your Noble Obstacle isn’t aimed at improving the outcome rather than simplifying your pursuit of it: that’s when you’ll be likely to get bogged down comparing microphone fidelity options instead of just using your phone for your new podcast.
4 - Tangled Up In Unofficial Rules
Perfectionism’s final form appears as Unstated Success Criteria. If there’s a secret goal of what “true” success looks like, it’s easy to give up and leave a goal unfinished when you’re achieving the stated goal but not the unstated one. Unstated Success Criteria can sound like:
“I wanted to be able to bench press 150 lbs, but I really don’t want huge shoulders.”
“My original goal was to hit 1M steps, but really, I was doing it because I wanted to lose weight.”
“I signed up for a coaching program but I hate following other people’s instructions.”
“I’ve been trying to build a basketweaving business because being a successful entrepreneur gives me status amongst my peers, not because I love the art of weaving baskets.”
When you don’t actively unearth and voice these Unstated Success Criteria, then part way through your journey you will take the out offered by perfectionism, “This goal isn’t really what I want so let’s give up and do something else.”
Seeing these statements under the light of day exposes this secret success criteria. When we only hear them inside our own head, then our perfectionist brain make these Give-Up temptations sound perfectly reasonable
Antidote: Regularly reflect, either before pursuing a goal or partway through. Use this litmus test for Unstated Success Criteria:
Do I even like _________?
What’s my real goal here?
Does the method match who I am?
Is it time to quit? What’s the best-case & worst-case scenario for quitting?
After answering those questions, then test:
What does that mean?
Says who?
Then, rewrite the Unstated Success Criteria as goals. Simply by reflection, you’ve made the invisible, visible.
For bonus points, reach out to a peer or colleague to get a third-person perspective that your success criteria is a valuable and necessary condition.
Now, Go Finish Something
Many of the suggestions in Finish revolve around elevating subconscious thoughts into conscious strategies. Goal too big? Accept that it’s too big, cut it in half, and talk to someone about it. Never getting around to that one ugly task? Identify the time-wasters and tell someone to help you stay honest. Always pivoting and never completing? Reflect, and then go talk to someone about what you unearth.
If you are an entrepreneur that has plateaued, perhaps you have some of the perfectionist habits secretly undermining your continued growth. Professionals we work with at Learn to Scale struggle to change as the demands of their business changes around them: perfectionism often sneaks up around delegation, letting go of day-to-day operations, and abandoning the safe things in exchange for the hard things.
