Finish Your Goals and Give Yourself the Gift of Done With Jon Acuff

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04/29/20 • 47 min

Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of six books including his most recent Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.

For over 20 years he’s helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose, Staples, and the Dave Ramsey Team. Most recently he’s spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at conferences, colleges, companies and churches. Featured regularly on national media, Jon has been seen on CNN, Fox News, Good Day LA and several other key outlets.

In addition, Jon is also a big proponent of social media with blogs that have been read by 4 million people and almost 300,000 twitter followers. In 2010 he used his influence with his tribe to build two kindergartens in Vietnam. Jon lives with his wife Jenny and two daughters in Franklin, TN.

Favorite Success Quote

“Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers.”

Key Points

1. Starting is Fun But Success Belongs to Finishers

Do you remember the last time that you started a new workout program or online course?

Do you remember that warm fuzzy feeling you got in the pit of your stomach while you were starting a journey towards your goals?

Now let me ask you another question...

Do you remember the last time that you actually went through and completely finished a book, workout program, online course, or anything else of importance?

Most of you don’t...

And this doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t make you lazy, it makes you human.

You see, as people we are wired to start things.

Whether we are starting a new diet, a new business, a new book, or whatever else it is, we love starting.

It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it makes us feel important.

Finishing, on the other hand, sucks.

To finish something, you must endure small failures and setbacks, you must persevere even when you don’t feel motivated, and you must keep pushing through the parts that don’t feel particularly exciting or fun.

But success belongs to finishers.

No one became successful by starting something.

They became successful by following it through to the end and finishing.

When you realize this, when you truly internalize this principle, everything will change.

2. Perfectionism will Break You

Nothing will wreck your goals, limit your potential, and destroy your plans more than perfectionism.

Nothing.

Perfectionism is merely an alibi for inaction. It’s an excuse to do nothing.

Whereas the non-perfectionist says “I know that I can’t do xyz perfectly with my current resources, what can I do to move things forward anyways.”

The perfectionist says “I know that I can’t do xyz perfectly so why even bother doing it at all?”

When you operate from this framework, you are setting yourself up to fail.

No one succeeds when they have a commitment to perfection.

Because, quite simply, perfection cannot exist.

There will always be something that prevents you from achieving true perfection which means there will always be something that prevents you from finishing your goals, no matter what they are.

If you want to live a great life and have a lot of fun doing so, then I challenge you to eradicate the word “Perfect” from your vocabulary.

Focus on getting things done and finishing.

Because success belongs to the finishers.

3. Slow it Down and Cut it Back

Once you have committed to being a “Finisher” and not a perfectionist, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

You have all of these goals and big dreams that you want to achieve, but they just seem so daunting and scary.

Take a deep breath, relax, and realize that it’s going to be ok.

Instead of stressing yourself out and killing yourself to achieve arbitrarily set goals that don’t have any real significance in your life, slow things down and cut back.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say that your goal is to lose 15 lbs. in the next month.

While it’s admirable that you want to lose weight, it’s also a foolish goal.

You are simply trying to do too much too quickly.

Why do you need to lose so much weight in the next 30 days? What’s so significant about the next month that you are willing to starve yourself to death in order to hit an arbitrary weight goal?

Instead, let’s take the finisher’s approach.

Cut the goal in half and double the timeline.

Now, instead of 15 lbs. in 30 days, it’s 7 lbs. in 60 days.

That means you need to...

Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of six books including his most recent Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.

Favorite Success Quote

“Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers.”

Key Points

1. Starting is Fun But Success Belongs to Finishers

Do you remember the last time that you started a new workout program or online course?

Do you remember that warm fuzzy feeling you got in the pit of your stomach while you were starting a journey towards your goals?

Now let me ask you another question...

Do you remember the last time that you actually went through and completely finished a book, workout program, online course, or anything else of importance?

Most of you don’t...

And this doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t make you lazy, it makes you human.

You see, as people we are wired to start things.

Whether we are starting a new diet, a new business, a new book, or whatever else it is, we love starting.

It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it makes us feel important.

Finishing, on the other hand, sucks.

But success belongs to finishers.

No one became successful by starting something.

They became successful by following it through to the end and finishing.

When you realize this, when you truly internalize this principle, everything will change.

2. Perfectionism will Break You

Nothing will wreck your goals, limit your potential, and destroy your plans more than perfectionism.

Nothing.

Perfectionism is merely an alibi for inaction. It’s an excuse to do nothing.

Whereas the non-perfectionist says “I know that I can’t do xyz perfectly with my current resources, what can I do to move things forward anyways.”

The perfectionist says “I know that I can’t do xyz perfectly so why even bother doing it at all?”

When you operate from this framework, you are setting yourself up to fail.

No one succeeds when they have a commitment to perfection.

Because, quite simply, perfection cannot exist.

There will always be something that prevents you from achieving true perfection which means there will always be something that prevents you from finishing your goals, no matter what they are.

If you want to live a great life and have a lot of fun doing so, then I challenge you to eradicate the word “Perfect” from your vocabulary.

Focus on getting things done and finishing.

Because success belongs to the finishers.

3. Slow it Down and Cut it Back

Once you have committed to being a “Finisher” and not a perfectionist, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

You have all of these goals and big dreams that you want to achieve, but they just seem so daunting and scary.

Take a deep breath, relax, and realize that it’s going to be ok.

Instead of stressing yourself out and killing yourself to achieve arbitrarily set goals that don’t have any real significance in your life, slow things down and cut back.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say that your goal is to lose 15 lbs. in the next month.

While it’s admirable that you want to lose weight, it’s also a foolish goal.

You are simply trying to do too much too quickly.

Why do you need to lose so much weight in the next 30 days? What’s so significant about the next month that you are willing to starve yourself to death in order to hit an arbitrary weight goal?

Instead, let’s take the finisher’s approach.

Cut the goal in half and double the timeline.

Now, instead of 15 lbs. in 30 days, it’s 7 lbs. in 60 days.

That means you need to...

Previous Episode

Master Your Craft, Make Millions, and Design an Epic Life With Noah Kagan

Noah Kagan was #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint.com, and is the Chief Sumo (founder) of SumoMe, a company which offers free tools to help grow website traffic. He has built 4 products that each generated 7-figures and become one of the leading marketing experts in the world

Favorite Success Quote

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease”

“You’re not important and no one cares”

Key Points

1. Just Do Things You Enjoy

As far as we know, we only have one life. We only have one opportunity to live, laugh, and love.

So why is it that so many of us waste our precious time doing shit that we don’t like?

Why do we work jobs that we hate, stay in relationships that we don’t enjoy, and force ourselves to spend time with people who suck?

It’s absolute insanity.

Although there’s no “One size fits all” approach to happiness or living the good life, everything starts by doing more of the things you enjoy and less of the things that you hate.

So start today.

Find a way to cut out activities that you don’t enjoy and that don’t serve the bigger picture and a way to add in more activities that light you up and put a smile on your face.

2. No One Gives a Sh*t About You

This sounds harsh, I know.

But if you think about things objectively, you will quickly realize that it’s true.

Outside of your immediate family and maybe a handful of close friends, no one cares about you, no one.

People don’t care whether you succeed or not, they don’t care if you’re happy, and they don’t really care if you carry on living.

Although it sounds morbid, this is actually good news.

The fact that no one cares gives you permission to screw up, it gives you permission to fall on your face, to fail, to lose, and to try things that might not work because, at the end of the day, no one really gives a shit either way.

So stop worrying about other people and focus on yourself.

If you don’t, you will live your life trying to make everyone else happy without ever taking a second to think about your own happiness and well being.

3. Learn to be Empathetic

Even though no one really cares about you, this doesn’t mean that you should go through life constantly ignoring others, acting like a narcissist, and screwing people over to achieve your goals.

You must develop a certain level of empathy so that you can successfully maneuver through the world.

The people that you encounter in your everyday life have their own goals, their own struggles, and their own problems.

When you can learn to identify with them and consider things from their point of view, you will become a social powerhouse.

4. Define Success for Yourself

One of the biggest mistakes that anyone can make in their life is striving to achieve a version of success that isn’t truly congruent with their deepest goals and desires.

Noah has made millions of dollars several times over but his lifestyle is pretty modest.

You won’t see him posting on Instagram about his new McLaren or bragging about his new private jet.

He’s content to live in a 700 square foot flat and drive his scooter downtown in search of the city’s best tacos.

Because that is his version of success. He enjoys what he does and has a simple life.

For other people, however, this would be a living hell.

People like Gary Vaynerchuk need to be in constant motion to enjoy their life and feel fulfilled, they need the rush of the deal and the job in order to feel successful and fulfilled.

Neither path is wrong.

It’s simply a matter of what works for you.

So I want to challenge you to take some time to think about what success really means to you. What do you really want? What would it take for you to be happy and fulfilled?

Once you have your answer, go do that thing, and ignore everyone else’s opinions and ideas.

Because your definition of success is the only thing that matters.

5. Stop Complaining and Start Looking for a Solution

For the next 30 days, I want you to do something.

It sounds simple, but I promise it’s not as easy as you might assume.

I want you to quit complaining.

That’s it.

For the next 30 days, I want you to consciously quit complaining about anything in your life whether it’s your job, your spouse, your kids, or just crappy weather.

Stop complaining and start looking for solutions.

If something bothers you, instead of bitching about it, find a way to change it.

It might sound simple, but I promise that it will change your life.

Next Episode

Side Hustle Your Way to Financial Freedom With Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, The Happiness of Pursuit, Born for This, and The Art of Non-Conformity.

Chris travels the world and writes for a small army of remarkable people at ChrisGuillebeau.com, or you can listen to his daily podcast, Side Hustle School, at SideHustleSchool.com.

Favorite Success Quote “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” -Alan Keightley Key Points

1. You Don’t Have to Live the Way You Are Told

Go to school, get good grades, attend college, find a cushy job with nice benefits, buy a house, get married, have 2.5 kids, die.

That’s the script that most of us have been told to follow.

We’ve been fed a steady diet of lies and misinformation that make us believe that there is only one way to approach life, that there’s a select set of goals and ambitions that are acceptable and the rest are heresy.

Luckily for you and me... There’s more to life than what we were told growing up.

Since the inception of the internet, it’s easier now than it’s ever been in human history to create a sustainable income doing something that you love.

It’s easier than it’s ever been before to shrug off the expectations and “should’s” of society and to go about life in our own way.

You don’t have to do what anyone else tells you to do.

If you want to go to college, get a job, get married, and buy a house in the hills, then great!

If you don’t, if you want to drop out, travel the world, start an online business, and live the expat lifestyle, you can do that too.

You have the power to decide who you want to be and what you want to do.

You have the ability to decide for yourself what kind of life you want to live.

Make the most of it.

2. What One Man Can Do Another Man Can Do

In a world that glamorizes the end result without giving so much as a second thought to the process, it’s easy to look at the successes of others and believe that their accomplishments are out of your reach.

But they were people just like you.

Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk, and yes, Chris Guillebeau are all just normal people who have done extraordinary things.

There’s nothing special about them, they didn’t have any unique advantages that you don’t have, they were just normal everyday guys who applied proven principles and tactics to achieve extraordinary results.

Whatever it is that you want to achieve in this life, it’s possible, and the first step on your path to making it happen is to acknowledge that it’s possible.

What one man can do, another man can do. If it’s been done before it can be done again.

Always remember this and always keep your head up.

3. A Side Hustle is an Asset

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to building a side hustle is to think that a “Side Hustle” is the same thing as a part-time job.

There’s nothing wrong with freelancing or working part-time, but at the end of the day, these endeavors all require the same thing... Your time.

No matter how highly paid you become, anything that directly requires your time to make money is a part time job, not a Side Hustle.

A side hustle is an asset, it’s something that can make you money while you sleep, it’s something that you can set and forget.

It’s something that generates revenue without consuming your life.

4. Your Hustle Isn’t that Big of a Deal

I know countless individuals who work jobs that they love.

They decide to build a side hustle, quite simply, because they want the extra cash.

After weeks of brainstorming and agonizing over potential paths they could take, they eventually collapse into a puddle of nerves and anxiety.

Not because the task ahead of them is so monumental, but because they have put their side hustle on a proverbial pedestal. They turned it into something that it wasn’t.

A side hustle is nothing more than a fun project that you work on in your spare time to generate extra revenue.

That’s it.

You don’t have to be passionate about it as long as you enjoy it.

You don’t have to make 6-figures with it (unless you want to).

You don’t have to turn it into anything of significance.

It’s just a way to make extra income doing things you like.

So don’t worry about finding your “One Thing”. Make a list of 10 different side hustles, try each one for 2-3 weeks and if you don’t like it, throw it in the garbage and start the next one.

This is an experiment, treat it as such.

5. Just Get Started

No matter what goal you are pursuing, whether it’s to travel the world, find your dream job, or simply start a side hustle to earn an extra $2,000 a month, the first ...