FINISHING WHAT YOU START

Oh, gotta remember the Twitter. This is what I did last week. Oops. Okay, I think it's working. I hope it's working. It says the mic is off. How do I put it on? Okay, it's working. Hi, everyone. Happy Friday. Love Fridays. So how has your week been? Have you thought about it? Have you reflected? Have you assessed what we usually go through? Did you think about it this morning? Did you set some intentions? Are you going to reflect today? At the end of the day, how was the day? How was the week? What did you get done? What didn't you? What was good? What was bad? What are you grateful for? What did you learn? There's so many questions you can ask yourself every week. It's easier if you build, like a practice and you do it every day or every week and, you know, you just get in a rhythm and you build the habit. You'll be surprised at how much you learn about yourself and your behavior and how things run for you. So today we are talking about finishing what you start. Such an important topic. And I think it's a good topic to end January with because. Because how many people are still doing their New Year's resolutions? Yeah, this is the day to ask yourself, as the month closes, did I start strong? Am I still going strong? Am I finishing what I started? It's actually one of my friends, moms, always, who told me to never start something you can't finish. And it really struck me. It's such good advice because as people, we just like to start things. Everything is new and exciting. We're ambitious. We think you can achieve stuff. I. And then we just never finish. If everyone finished what they started, we would all be so much more efficient, so much more productive. Would have invented things and made things and created things. But we get distracted, we get bored, we get lazy, things get hard, we're inconsistent. There are so many obstacles to finishing what you start. So one of the first things to always make sure is don't start things you can't finish before you commit, before you agree. Think about it. Do you have the time? Do you have the energy? Do you have the money? Are you really going to commit to this thing? Are you going to be able to do it? How hard is it? How reasonable is it? So many people started New Year's resolutions that were totally unreasonable. I think I made a video about it last year saying, choose a resolution that is manageable. If you've never read a book before, don't say you're going to read a book a week in 2022. Let's be reasonable. Say I will start by reading 10 pages every three days. You know that's a stretch. Or say I'll start by reading a newspaper. You can't read a book a week if you're not someone who can sit and read for hours. And you don't have that practice. It's like saying, by the end of March, I'll be able to run a marathon. And you've never actually run anything. You're super unfit. You have to be realistic. So at the beginning, make sure you are realistic and reasonable, not pessimistic. You need to also push yourself and stretch yourself. It is a goal, it is a challenge, it is a habit. But always think about things before you start and commit to them. How many times have your friends asked you for something? Yes, yes, sure, I'll help you with that. I'll be on your wedding committee. I'll do this for you or colleagues at work. And the moment you say yes, you're like, oh dear, how on earth am I gonna get it done? So you have to think about things before you start them and make sure you're starting things that you will be able to finish. So think about what it's going to take to finish. How long is it going to take? Is it a week long project? Is it six months? Is this for four years? The rest of your life before, before you commit to something, think about it and assess. What are the resources it's going to require from me? Am I going to have to sacrifice time from something else? Is it going to cost me a lot of money? Is it going to take a lot of willpower and energy? What is it going to take? And what will finishing look like by the time I get there? You need to visualize it and be excited about it and think, yes, I can do this. Then you'll be committed and encouraged and motivated. And when it's hard and you feel like giving up, that's when you hold onto the why. Why did I agree to this? Why did I say yes to this? Why am I doing this? And then you make sure that you hold onto that and motivates you in the tough times. So that is one of the tips. Another thing that I would say is make sure that you map out what you're trying to do. So you break out down all your tasks into little, little tasks that you can manage and then you schedule them in your calendar so this way you can plan for things the way I'm saying, assess your resources, make sure, make sure you have Planned for those resources. If it's something you have to pay a monthly subscription, you know, every month at this date, I'm going to need this much money. If it's something that needs your time, like you're going to join a football team. Tuesdays and Thursdays we are at practice at 5 o'. Clock. You put it in your calendar, plan it out some. So many times we just say, oh my God, that's such a good idea. Yes, let's do it, my friend. Have you thought it through? Think about it. Are you going to be able to make the time? Are you going to be able to pay the money for that gym membership or for this new course you're doing online? Are you going to be able to dedicate yourself there? Map it out. What is it going to take? Break it down into tasks you can fit in a calendar you can see. It's going to take this many months. As long as I do 10 pages per day, then I'll be reading at least one book a month. You can figure it out, but break it down into those small, small chunks and then see the chunks because sometimes you think it will take you one hour and it's going to take you six hours. Have you ever agreed to a project like that? Be realistic. Be reasonable with yourself. You're not in a race with anyone else. You're not stronger or weaker because you did it in six months, then they did it in three months. Be reasonable if you want to succeed, be reasonable with yourself, not with anyone else. If you think it's very hard to read 10 pages a day, you don't have to tell anyone. I'm going to read one page a day. If I read one page a day, it's progress. Tomorrow I'll read another page. One page, one page, one page, one page. After two weeks I can read two pages. Now I'm used to. You have to make it small and manageable for you, not for anyone else, not for someone to judge you. You're not running a race with anyone else. You're trying to figure it out for yourself. So break it down small, make it reasonable and map it out so that you are clear and committed to what you are trying to finish. Another thing that's important that people don't think is, is you need to reward yourself at the end. Human beings are very emotionally motivated. We think we're logical creatures. We're really, really not. You need to have a reward or something that pats you on the back or makes you happy when you're making progress. When you have momentum. So that's why, like with habits, when you're building a new habit, you have to have a trigger that reminds you to start the new habit. And at the end, you have to have a reward that makes you feel good that you did the new thing. So make like a list of rewards for yourself, like treats like, oh, I'll go for dinner, or I'll take a bath, or I'll buy myself this, or I'll allow myself one hour of extra social media. You know, like, find small things to make you happy to that are good for you. And you're like, oh, well done. And if you don't do it, you don't get the thing. So it's also motivated. Huh? If I read my two pages today, then I'll be able to watch that show I wanted to watch last night. Do it first. Do the thing. Don't say, let me watch the show, then I'll watch. Read the two pages. But rewards are important. It keeps you motivated. You don't realize it, but you start to look forward to the small, small rewards. And it keeps you like, okay, fine, I'll just do it. I'll just read the two pages because then I get to do this, you know, and it's just something small to keep you going through the day. Life is hard, man. Don't try and make it harder for yourself. You don't get extra points for suffering through things, for making it so, so difficult for yourself. I went to the gym six times this week. And then you never went again. Make it reasonable, because the goal here is to finish what you've started. Not to start many things, we can all start things. But that momentum, that consistency to get to the end is very hard to manage. That's why it takes. It's so difficult. Discipline is a very difficult thing to balance and to build and to add in different areas of your life. You might be very disciplined at work, but then in your personal life, you're super messy and relaxed. You know what I mean? So rewards help you. They're small little milestones that make you happy about things. You can even tell people the end of the month, if I've done this, we're going to do this together, okay? I'm gonna make sure I go to the gym my three times every week. Then at the end of the month, we're gonna go out and celebrate because you did it, and then you do it again next month. You have to, like, push yourself. Do what it takes to encourage yourself, to make sure that you go the distance, it's a practice. So that's something that we always have to think about. I don't know why we are trained. I think as kids that you do something and you finished and it's over. But most things in life, I find it's never over. It's like a practice. It's just a habit you build or it's something you integrate into your life and then you always have it forever. When, when you think about something as it's a closed project, it's very easy to think. I just have to put in effort now. When it's done, it's done. Stuff like your health, your reading, your growth, it's never over. You have to be able to build this and integrate it into your life so that it's not so difficult. It's not pushing uphill every day. It just. You get used to it. It gets used to being a part of your life. So I think it helps to adjust your mindset and know it's a practice. I'm always learning, I'm always growing, I'm always improving. Yes. Sometimes I'll backslide, sometimes I'll mess up, sometimes I won't go to the gym as many times or I'll forget to read the page or I was too tired. It happens. Be kind with yourself. It's okay. You are practicing, you are learning, you're going to keep improving and then you get up and you start again. Yes, this week I missed going to the gym, but next week I will start again and I will do it. I won't say, eh, now I've given up. I tried. You have to keep trying. You have to keep going. That's why we use the word practice. It's a practice. No one is an expert at life. Even the experts in different technical fields have to learn and have to try and have to grow in different areas of their lives. So it's always a practice. Be compassionate with yourself. If you are speaking to a friend about this and they were demoralized about their last New Year's resolution or habit they're trying to put into place or a goal they have at work, you would encourage them, you would be kind. So do that to yourself as well and make sure you're encouraging and you're being reasonable. You are practicing. You are constantly in practice. The last thing I would say that is helpful with finishing what you start is having a system where you check and you clear things regularly. You know, so many people start projects like in their house, they start building this or changing that or Breaking that. And then it just stays like that for months or for years. Because you don't go back and check at the end of every week. That's what I'm saying. Assess how the week went. At the end of every week, I go through my to do list for that week. Which things have I finished? Which things have I not finished? Why didn't I finish them? Oh, I forgot to do this. This one needed this meeting. This one needed this person. This one told me to get back to them. This one said they'll call me and assess and go through it and check and clear things regularly. You know, there's a funness in taking things off a to do list. That's like the reward we were talking about. Helps you with the momentum. Tick, tick, tick. I'm making progress. I'm doing it. I'm going forward. It's a good thing. So if you have a system where you say every Sunday or every Friday or every end of the month, I look at all the things I started this month and I see, have I finished them? Which ones haven't I finished? Why haven't I finished? What do I need to finish it? What are the resources missing? What are the obstacles in my way? Was it too ambitious? Was I lazy? Did I need someone's help? Did it cost a lot of money? Did it delay for another reason? And how can I finish it? But if you just start it and then you forget and months later, oh, I was supposed to read that book. Where did I leave that book? You can't even remember because you don't have a system to check yourself. You need to build a supportive environment around yourself so that you're used to checking things. Oh, I forgot to do this. Oh, where is this? This is why it's useful to do things at the end of every day. I feel, personally, I do so many things in a day. By the end of the day, it's hard to remember what I did that day. So I have to sit and focus. Okay, I started to do this, then I did this, then I did this. At the end of this meeting, did I follow up that thing? Oh, I need to send that email tonight. Otherwise it's gone and I'll forget and in two weeks, they'll be like, natalie, where is this? You said you're gonna do it. Oops. So I have to have a system around me to make sure I don't have those things falling through the cracks. I have to check regularly at the end of every day, at the end of every week, every Sunday, When I'm planning, what do I have to do next week? I look. What are the things I forgot to do last week or I didn't finish last week? How do I finish them this week? Because I don't want to just carry that same project forward week after week after week. Why isn't it working out? Maybe it's the wrong project. Check and clear things regularly. Even physical stuff in your life. It's like when your house gets messy, or your room. You don't realize, but every day the things are piling up. Till one day you say, okay, I have to clean. Make it a regular thing. If I clean up every Wednesday, the place is tidy. I realize where everything is. Everything goes back into place. It's a project you haven't finished. I started folding all the laundry. Then I stopped. I left it on a pile. And now two weeks have passed. I'm just picking clothes out of the pile. That happens. It's life. We're human beings. But if you put a system around yourself, where Wednesdays are for laundry or Thursdays are for tidying up, you put a system around you. Such regularly checking, I forgot to do this. I forgot to clear that. I forgot to do this. Whether it's with your family or your friends, or with your kids, or with your colleagues, have a system around you. And you build that. Practice. It's a habit. Then you get used to doing it. Now I don't even realize, but I'm checking constantly. At the end of every day, at the end of every week. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. This one is not ticked. Why isn't it ticked? I have to move this to this day. Put it in my calendar. Find a system that works for you. But build the system and it makes your life easier. So supportive environment. So it's not taking willpower. Willpower is finite. You only have so much per day. Think about it like a cup. You only have a cup of willpower. You're woken up with every day. When it's finished for the day, it's finished. Whether you want to go to the gym or not. You have no willpower left. You will not be able to go. Whether you want to read those books or eat a healthier meal, you won't be able to do it. So you have to support yourself and make things easy around you. So you don't need so much willpower to do them. And habits, once you put them in place, you don't need any willpower to do it. You just do it. You don't even notice that you're doing it. That's the goal. That's what you're trying to get to with all these different things you're trying to change in your life with everything that you start to make sure that you finish it. You don't want to be pushing every day and stressing yourself. It needs to take a few weeks of pushing and then it gets easier. You get used to it. You have a system. You're used to doing it, and then it won't take as much willpower. That's a way to help yourself to finish what you start. So let's see the questions. I hope the audio is working okay. Why is it important to finish what you started? I think one is integrity. Because that's how you become a reliable, disciplined person. If you're someone who always says things and you never finish them, people can't rely on you. They can't count on you. Your word means nothing. You say, I'll handle this at work, and you never handle it. You say you'll do this for your friend or your relative, but you never do it. You're not a reliable person. So I think it's hard to be an upstanding pillar in society if no one can count on your word, if you can't count on your own word. Because the first person you have to rely on is yourself. If you always tell yourself, I can do this and you don't do it, you don't trust yourself, you don't believe in yourself. So how are you supposed to achieve anything? You need to be able to know. When I say I'll do something, I'll do something, it's no, it's. I know it's normal for many people to say, oh, I'll do this, I'll do this. And you only do, let's say 8 out of 10. But that's more reasonable. At least that's someone who is reliable. They can count on you. You can count on you. You know, if I say, I will do this, I'll do it, you trust and believe it. It gives you a certain level of confidence, I think. But if you know that you never finish what you start. So when you start asking someone for a loan, or you're asking for a scholarship, or you're trying to get a promotion, they're like that one. He says he'll do it, he says he'll do it, but he never does it. Mob jazz. You know, there are people who just talk, talk, talk, but they never actually achieve anything. So I think finishing what you start is good. For yourself. And it's good for your life, for your own self esteem and confidence. It helps you to build momentum, to know that when you start projects, you finish them. You're confident in what you're doing, you're confident in your ability to overcome obstacles, to plan things out well. And then in your own society, people can rely on you, they can count on you. They know that if you say you're going to do something, you'll do it, you'll achieve it, you'll finish it, you will find a way, because you're that kind of a person. And I think many successful people, many leaders, many pillars in the community, you can count on them. Look at why you count on them. Look at why you look up to them. You trust what they say. They're going to do something as simple as me saying, I'll come every Friday at 4 o' clock and do this. It's hard, I'm busy, I'm tired, I have other things I could do, but I want to build this practice. And I said, if I say I'm going to do a live, I'm going to do it. It's important to me that my word means something. Because it might be something as simple as talking on the Internet for 30 minutes, but someone who knows me or sees me or sees this on LinkedIn will give me or my company an opportunity because they can see I'm a reliable, trustworthy person. I do what I say I'm going to do. If I say I'm going to hand in this, I'm going to send you that email. I'll do this introduction, I'll do it. I won't forget, I won't not do it if I say I'll do it. Because for me, my word means something in my community, with the people that I know, I need to be able to be trusted for my own opportunities, for my own reputation and for myself to know if I say I'm going to do it, I will do it. I can trust that. So I think it's important for you to build that in yourself and to understand why it's important to you too. How do you build a habit of finishing what you start? That's the next question. I think those are the tips that I've been talking about. I had said, break it down and map it out. Always make sure you start things you can finish. So be reasonable at the beginning. Make sure you have a reward at the end. Understand that it's a practice like in your mind. It's not something that you're just going to become an expert at and it's over. It's a constant practice, so be compassionate with yourself and then build a supportive system around you. Clear and check regularly. Check, check, check. Have I done it? Have I cleared it? Okay, tick next. If you haven't, you have to make sure you are doing it regularly. You're checking. Have I done all the things I said I will do? It's a habit you have to build. So it's something that you work on constantly. But it's worth it because you build the discipline and then it gets easier. I have a question from Hanifa. What are some tips planning your day? Firstly, be reasonable, about time. Personally, I struggle with time because I'm constantly a little bit late. I can prove but it's hard. I always have to fit so many things into one day. So I have to try and be as efficient and as reasonable as possible. Don't plan. I know the people whose meetings will take an hour and the ones who I can do like 15 minutes and we like bang it out. You have to know those kinds of things. Know that transport time in between. Plan things reasonably so that you have time in between. Like when I have to do many interviews in a day, make sure I have five or ten minutes in between each interview to reflect. Okay? Check my notes. Give that person like these are the what I want to think about before you go into the next one. I used to do back to back meetings and by the end my brain is just like what needs to be done. I don't even know what the follow up things are. So I think when you plan your day you need to be reasonable and effective. What I think chunking is a useful thing where you do similar tasks at the same time. If I'm going to sit and do all my emails, I do them all at the same time. Then I do meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings. Then I'll do phone calls for a bit, you know, so that it's more efficient rather than doing an email, then a meeting, then a phone call, then a meeting, then an email and you just keep moving up and down. So I'm more efficient in the day. Then you also have to think of your day holistically. Think in the morning, like your intentions for the day. What do you want to get out of today? What do you want to achieve? What are you worried about? What do you need support with? What do you want to make sure that gets done in the day? What are the most important things? Prioritize. Know your own energy when are you, like super alert and you can focus and no one's going to disturb you? That's when you need to do, like, the deep work things like writing a report or doing your research. When you're like, tired or sleepy after lunch, that's when you should do things like, oh, phone calls or following up this or checking on that. Things that don't need all your brain, know yourself and your own energy cycles and plan your day according to that if you can. And then in the morning, set your intention for how you want the day to run. And then plan things like, do I want to put in healthy lunch? Where am I going to eat lunch today? Do you want to exercise? Where are you going to fit it in the morning, in the evening? Are you going to meet a friend after work and go for a walk? Think about your life holistically, not just I have these work things to achieve today. Oh, I need to call my grandmother this week. Where shall I fit this in my day? How do I make sure that I go to my sister's wedding meeting, put it in my schedule, fit in all the things that are important in your life in your day and plan them all in the day so that your whole life is on your terms. Not that you wait till the end of the day and you're tired and you reach home and now you think, okay, what do I need to do for me now? Do I have energy to read? Do I have energy to work out? Do I have energy to eat healthy? Because when you put yourself at the end of the day, your willpower is done, your energy is done, your resources are depleted. So think about all that at the beginning of the day. I suggest. Okay, another question, Kaitesi. I have a problem with my online business. Everything is so gradual and it's scary. Okay, that shouldn't be scary. I know it can be not demoralizing, but like upsetting or frustrating. Gradual is good. If something happens too fast, it can go just as fast. Gradual means it's happening organically, it's building, you're moving forward. This is the challenge we have. One of my uncles told me that the problem with our generation, we like to eat our sugarcane backwards. We start with the sweetest part and then we go the other way. Yet previous generations would start with the not so sweet and work their way to the sweetest and as we want everything now, now, now, now, now, instant fast. We love the Internet. We love how fast everything goes. We love to know, we love to get things quickly. We love to see these stories Of I was broke yesterday and now I'm rich. That is not reasonable. And they are lying. Everyone who you see is successful. Every business that you can see publicly, and you know them, they have been struggling for at least 10 years and you didn't know who they were. They were building their business gradually, I assure you. Build your business gradually. You don't need to build overnight. I tell you why it's good to build gradually. Firstly, you are sure about what you are doing. You know your customers, you know your product or your service. You know what is going on. You're managing to meet the demand and you're getting the feedback. You're growing organically. Companies that just pump in lots of money and then try and roll out as fast as possible have so many problems. It costs you so much more money in the long run because you're now not going to meet the demand or supply or you're trying to force a product onto a market. You're not being able to handle what your customers are saying or what they need from you. It's so, so difficult. I've seen so many international companies do this, like companies that come to Africa and roll out in six countries and a year later they are down to one country because they thought they could just throw money at the problem. Growing gradually makes so much sense. You want to grow organically, you want to grow in a direction that works for your business, that will last. You want to build those customers so they're loyal customers, not that you killed them with Instagram adverts and they came and tried. The service was bad because you were overwhelmed and now they'll never come back. Customers who listen, who learn, who love you, who tell you, who are like, why don't you try this? I love this about what you're doing in your business. Those are the customers you want and that's how you build a business gradually. That's a business that's built to last. I know it can be frustrating, but you think of the long term. Do you want many customers now and you have no business in a year? Would you want to build your business slowly and in 10 years you have so many customers. I know it sounds frustrating and I don't know why they don't show more stories like this. You just need to read like people's memoirs or ask business people who are old their story. Yo, sometimes to this day, my dad tells me of businesses he started that I've never even heard of. He sold this and he tried this and he did that. Then he did this and he did, did this. This one took this long, this one took that long. It is exhausting. And I agree. That's why entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted. It's also not for the impatient because it's tiring and it's long and it takes patience and struggle. And every day you're thinking about your business and you just want it to grow. But every sale you make, every customer, every inquiry, you're like, yes, you appreciate it so much and that's how you grow slowly. I know it can be scary because you think other people are moving faster than you. You don't know how long they've been doing what they've been doing. Sometimes when I read about stories about American companies that are now doing IPOs or like a billion dollar companies now, when you go and Google them and you go on the Wikipedia page, founded in 1990, this, I'm like, what? Where have you been all this time? Struggling, grinding. Oh, we started in my parents garage. Oh, we started here. Even in Uganda, when you hear people's business stories. Yeah, I used to do it from my car. Yeah, I used to start here. Yesterday I was talking to my friend about Capital shoppers. Do you remember Capital shoppers? The shop in town in Nakasero? Oh my God. And now look at where they are. That is gradual. I was a kid and I remember going to capital shoppers and now they're everywhere and they're so big and it's so efficient and it's like a big Ugandan brand. It's lovely. But that's more than 15 years, more than from this old 20. There's so many cool stories like that, but you would not believe how long it took and how gradual it was and how patient they had to be and the struggles and the obstacles they went through. Don't just believe what you saw on TV or movies or like the social media influencers who, oh, six months ago I was broke and now I'm on holiday in this country. Where were you five years ago? What were you doing? They were in the grind. They were already working on it. So ask people around you and look for those stories and be inspired by the patients. That should inspire you because building a business gradually means it's going to last. Alright, last question. Can one manage two businesses successfully, like one short term investment and another long term investment? Do you think one could lose focus in the process? Of course you can. And of course you can lose focus. It's about how you manage your time and your energy and your priorities. Do you have the capacity to manage two businesses if one is long term. Have you put systems in place there? Does it need you every day? Are you the one opening the shop, locking the shop, checking the books, dealing with all the customers? Because how are you going to manage two businesses like that unless they're both in the same shop? You have to see what capacity you have and how organized you are. Are you delegating? Are you sharing? Do you have a business partner? Do you have staff? Do you have systems in place? Are you writing down everything? Are you using software? Is one online and one is physical? Are they different? Ask yourself these questions because I can't tell you yes or no. You can't manage a business or you can. You are the one who can tell yourself that. You are the one who knows. This is how much time I have in a day. This is how much energy I have. These are my other priorities. You know, they say, when you want something done, ask a busy person. Because busy people are used to doing so many things all the time and doing it effectively. Are you a busy person? Are you effective at what you're doing? Me, I manage many different businesses at the same time. Long term, short term, this one, that. One problem, different sectors. But it took a lot of time and practice systems support hundreds of people who work with me. It's not easy, but I had to know my own capacity and I had to do it gradually. Don't just start all of them at the same time. And one needs attention more than the other at every different time. Like children, when you have a new baby, it needs more attention than the old one, right? Because the old one, you have systems. There's routines, there's habits, there's a support environment. So see how to do that and see how you can do that for yourself. Because you are the one who's managing your own life. Look at your personal priorities and commitments. You have seven children and a nine to five job and you're also in Rotary and you're in fellowship. And now you also want to manage two businesses. Are you able? Are you not able? It's up to you to assess that for yourself. But be clear. This is why it's important to only start things you can finish. You don't start another business. Invest money and time and then it closes in three months because you're just overwhelmed. Assess it quite carefully. Map it out, break it down. Do I have capacity for all these things? What are the resources I need? How much time is this going to take me? How much money is it going to take me away from my other things. Can I really do this? Assess it, write it down for yourself, plan it out when you're sure and you're confident. Now I can do the business, and this is how I'm going to handle it. Won't be smooth sailing. There'll be challenges, there'll be obstacles, things you didn't think through. That's okay. But you know you can overcome them. You're confident that you can figure it out because. Because you've committed to doing this and this is how you're going to grow through it. I hope that's helpful. Hanifa. Thanks for tuning in, guys. I'll see you next week. And during the week, if you have questions, you can always send me a DM and we'll answer them during the live. Have a wonderful weekend.