We’re going to focus on finishing well as leaders this week. Each day we’ll ask a different question about finishing well and address it. Today’s question is: When Do You Start Thinking About Finishing Well? The short answer to that question is: Today. I’m fifty-nine years old, so the finish line is closer for me than it may be for many of you, but the truth of the matter is the sooner we start to think about finishing well, the better of we are. Why? Because, the unexamined life is not worth living, and a key aspect of examining our lives is considering where we want to be when we complete our work here on the earth.
Our faith perspective definitely plays into the matter of what it means to finish well as leaders. Even so, I contend regardless of where we stand with regard to matters of faith, considering what it will look like to cross the “finish line” of our lives someday and be “victorious” is an important aspect of finishing well. If we don’t know where we’re going, how will we know when we get there? If we don’t have a picture of what it will be like to finish well, to cross the finish line in victory, then how will we know we have? Taking the time now, whether you’re 25, 45, or 65 to ask what it will look like to finish well in your life is one of the most important tasks you can accomplish.
If you’re a leader in business, what will it look like to finish well? Have you thought about that question? Will it mean the company has accomplished a certain level of growth, or that you will have maintained a specific level of expertise throughout your career even as the world changes and the dynamics of your work do as well? Whatever your view of a victory as you cross the finish line may be, now is the time to start to plan for it, to train for it, and carry out the practices necessary to see it happen.
While I’m not a planner by nature, I am learning that having a plan for today, and for the future makes it much more likely that I will cross the finish line with victory than if I drift through life. Of course, not that many leaders are drifting through life, but I’ve met many who are like me–they are working furiously to accomplish as much as they can, but in the midst of all the activity, they aren’t sure where they’re going. Taking the time to sit down each day to consider not only what you are going to do, but why you’re doing, what overarching plan the tasks will contribute to completing is a worthwhile endeavor. Steven Covey called it “sharpening the saw.” Such activity is a necessary component of finishing well, and ought to be carried out today, and each day.
If you have no idea what it would look like to finish well, then right now, or in the very near future why not block out a half day or a day to reflect on that question, and to start forming a plan for accomplishing the goal of finishing well? Remember: we can only finish well if we know what that means for us? Everyone’s finish line and victory will be unique, but the sooner we start to plan for it, the more likely we will win. I want to appeal to those who are like me once again–you may think there’s plenty of time for starting to think about the finish line, later. The truth is later comes a lot sooner than any of us think, and unless you plan now for finishing well, you may be derailed before you get that. You may also put off defining what it means to finish well so long, you won’t be able to do so.
Why am I making such a big deal about this? Because so few people finish well. It doesn’t matter what discipline we consider: business, art, faith, entertainment the news and tabloids are filled with accounts of those who finished poorly or didn’t finish at all. Today is the best day to stop to look ahead to the finish, if we have never done. If we already have a definition and a plan for what it looks like to finish well, then today is a great day to stop to review it and make any course corrections needed to see we do, indeed, finish well.
Tomorrow, we’ll consider what we can do daily to make sure we finish well. Looking forward to sharing with you.
Here’s to leading better, by taking the time to be intentional about finishing well–today!