I have many clients who are good at starting the work to build their CORE & OPUS. They’re not good at finishing. They would benefit from finishing but can’t seem to do it. Great to start, good intentions to make progress, and a failure to finish. Let’s go back and try to make sense of it.
The etyomology of the English word “decide” has a funny bed-fellow. The Latin word “caedere” is where the word decide got its start. It means to “cut off” or “to kill.” Yikes. Caedere is also the etymological root for the English word “homicide.” When we make a decision we are “killing” options – cutting off the chance to remain open. We are choosing to decide and this feels like a loss. Remember, we are hard wired for “loss aversion” more than anything. This. Is. Not. Going. Away. Damn.
Dan Ariely, author of one of my favorite books Predictably Irrational, drives this home with clarity. “Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of a loss.” This is why so few finish their OPUS and PoP it with discipline. Their untrained brain is tricking them into thinking by not finishing, options remain open. The truth is something else.
By NOT deciding we are choosing to remain stuck where we are.
We are marrying the status quo. We are closing the chance for growth because we’re afraid to move. This “no decision” is actually a deathnail that leads to the worst kinda death – A slow one. You decide. Your decisions have consequences. The cool thing is the more you make them, the easier they get. Finish, my friend. The truth is, it aint gonna kill you.
Live hard. Love harder. Finish damnit…
BUILT TO LEAD 