You know I ended my last post with me telling you to enjoy life and if you are like most people I am sure you did not think too much about that statement.  I really want you to think about that statement.

You know I am an engineer (oh wait, you might not because my About page isn’t finished yet…GRRRR;) and I cannot help but think like an engineer all the time.  One of the most beautiful, yet simple, concepts of engineering is inertia:.  A body in motion will continue in motion until acted upon by an external force.  This could mean many things like: 1) You are on your way to the freezer with the ice cream in it until the phone rings. (Yes! Saved by the bell!)  2)  You were about to head to your co-worker’s cubicle to tell her to mind her own business and pull her weight in the project and if she just got off the phone maybe she could get—and then your boss calls your name or 3) You start on a little project that you complete, which makes you feel good, so you continue on to bigger and better projects.  Let’s focus on the last one since you ran out of ice cream and your co-worker was laid off…cool?

There are some things in life that just feel good.  And with that good feeling, they bring joy to your life.  Simple things like:

A good workout.

The shower after a good workout.

A good workout, a hot shower and a great lunch with a friend.

A good workout, a hot shower, a great lunch with a friend ending with mani/pedi’s for the day.

Wait, all that and a COUPON or TWOFOR special with the mani/pedi’s AND free parking.

Oh the endless permutations!!!!!!!!!!!

And completing a task.

Checking off the to-do’s for the day feels good but take that one step further: completing a full task/project feels even better.  So this isn’t dropping off the dry cleaning or cleaning the bathroom, this is making it to 5 push ups, doing 3 pull ups, organizing a whole closet or clearing out the draw (you know, everyone has the draw with all the stuff in it).  This is a task that you set out to achieve and when you complete it you not only feel good about it, you feel accomplished.

Now I know what you are going to say, “Jodi, I set goals all the time.  I am organized and driven and accomplish more in one day than you do in a week you once-every-few-days-blog-poster.” (Oh the hostility!)  Really?  How many of them are complete?  And how many of them span more than a day?  (again, the go-to-the-gym/complete-all-workouts-for-the-week type checklist is not what I am referring to).  When is the last time you set a lofty (or even mambi pambi) performance/physique goal and achieved it?  Do you know how good that feels? 

We like to start things, but we do not like to finish them.

Am I speaking to you with this one?  (Oh sing it sistah!  Oh Lord, break me down and…focus—sorry.)  Do you have 9 projects going at one time thinking you are “movin’ and a shakin’” when really you are just “wigglin’ and a strugglin’”?  When is the last time you really completed something?  I mean really completed it?  THERE IS JOY IN THE COMPLETION!  Honestly. Finish it.  Take it all the way to the end and then celebrate it. 

I know, I get it…starting something new is energizing.   The beginning of the week is always better than Thursday afternoon when you are just praying for Friday.  Diets are better on Monday than Saturday.  A new weight program is fun but 2 weeks later you need to be threatened within an inch of your life just to go to the gym.  Your start is always amazing; but what about the finish?  What’s up with that?   Do you blur your finish by morphing it into a new goal and calling it by a new name so you never have to admit that you didn’t finish it?  Talk to me about the finish! 

Why?  Because there is JOY in the completion and if you do not have glimpses of JOY in your life you stop caring, fighting, wanting, driving, being.

Every time you do not accomplish something it takes a tiny piece from you.  So that half done quilt in your bedroom that is under the half read book you started 3 months ago is reminding you day in and day out that you are not successful.  And feeling successful is just as important as BEING successful.  You must complete something soon!

Now I am not looking down my nose at you.  In fact, I have a nerve!  I am sitting in my office next to my brand new bookcase that is only half filled with books because I have not finished putting them in the case in the order that I want. (Read b/w the lines there and you see glimpses of “Sleeping with the Enemy” with the cans in the cabinet!lol)   And if you knew how many books I had, you would understand!  So now it is taking away from my joy!  I need to complete this.  In fact, I need to complete a few things in here or I am heading down an ugly path of joylessness. 

So what am I asking you to do?  I want you to complete something this week.  Do not start something new.  Complete something old.  Have you been meaning to “fill in the blank here” for a while and just haven’t?  Do you have a book you can finish?  Or a goal that you keep tabling?  Finish it!  But don’t just mindlessly pick up the project and chip away at it.  Set out on a path of completion.  Mark check points on your calendar so you can stay on task.  Tell your friend so they can keep you accountable.  This can be gym related or just house related—who cares!  Finish a project that’s big enough to create a tsunami of successful feelings but small enough to fit within a 2 week time frame. 

I, myself, am giddy with anticipation over a project I have looming in the background.  It is honestly about 6 months away from being done and if you are a personal trainer looking to bring your clients to the next level—you’ll want to follow this project.  But in the mean time, I need to create some serious inertia for that to happen because that’s a long way away.  So I am setting smaller, more achievable goals to give me that successful feeling I crave…   

We need a rhythm, a flow, an accomplished feeling…

…because once we have it, we are on such a high for at least a week (most likely more than that) that we can conquer just about anything! 

…then we’ll capitalize on our inertia and set our sights higher!

Are you ready?