The power of Completion

"How energy is created by completion” was my reply when I was asked this morning what I had learned from attending Ann Wilson’s Financial Freedom University at the weekend.

It was one of those big aha moments for me. I realized how much energy is both created and released by the completion of a task. It clears the thoughts of  “I must do it” from your psyche and creates a feeling of accomplishment.

Armed with this new realization I thought I would notice the difference with even a simple job of making my morning juice.

How different did it feel to just being doing one thing at a time, to completion, where I would normally be distracted into other things?

In the case of juicing, I could even break that down into preparing and juicing individual vegetables as a task on their own, first the carrots, then the other vegetables, one by one. I didn’t, this morning, take the whole lot out of the fridge and clutter the worktop but I did them individually as a complete task in itself. I cleared the rubbish and kept a clean and tidy working environment.

How did this feel?  

It highlighted how even simple tasks can create the feeling of completion and create energy and clarity.

We cannot multitask, even if we think we can. We can only ever focus on one thing at a time, even if that time is a split second before we flip to another thought, or action, and back again.

I must admit that while I was juicing I could feel myself wanting to leave this task and move onto another one. As a big picture, visual person, this generally leads me to having several different tasks on the go at once; in my head, on my to-do list, written in my diary or on various pieces of paper.

Does any of this get anything done? NO! All it does is clutter my head and create procrastination and paralysis.

This concept of completion does exactly the opposite of that. It creates focus, a feeling of being in control, but most of all it creates the energy to move on to the next task knowing that the previous one is completed and no longer in my head or floating on a list somewhere.

One of the most powerful ways I have found of creating energy and movement in the past has been to write a list of the top 6 most important tasks for the next day either in my calendar or on a 3x5 card before I go to bed.

I know that when I have done that, I have got up the next morning knowing exactly where I was going to put my focus.  By doing the most important task first, and crossing it off my list (the completion that creates the energy) reprioritizing and moving onto the next task, the good feeling it creates is unbelievable.

Of course I realize that if you are a completer finisher personality type, you may well be thinking “did she not know that before?”

Obviously not!