Motivation to Finish Your Work

Finding an Ending Through a Mountain Full of Beginnings

So you just started something. You're excited about your new project and the directions you could take as you work on it, but it exhausts you to acknowledge the time and effort it'll take to finish with upmost quality. You don't want to make it seem like you're finishing something for the sake of getting it over with, and you certainly don't want to have work that doesn't reflect your efforts. Starting something is hard, but finishing will almost always be harder. It takes an extra layer of dedication to complete something, but here are a few reasons to make it easier for you.

1) It's Only As Hard as You Make it Out to Be

I remember throughout high school when the teacher would mention a new assignment, a bunch of groans would instantly start flooding the room. Frowns would strike their faces, one-by-one, as they were given the papers. They'd read over the rubric, then drop their head onto their desk into a long sigh. They were done with it before they even started, which is like a cookie crumbling before it's even touched. When students hear of a new project, they correlate it with the time and effort required to finish, and in their minds, it'll lead to a long, exhausting process of constant procrastination and a 'decent' result that they'll end up settling with. Just admit it because it's something we all subconsciously think about, hard work requires effort that not everyone has the energy for. However, what we need to realize is that our attitude towards anything will always be reflected in the result. If that attitude is shared about every new project, you'll naturally start to approach new tasks with an exhausted perspective instead of opening yourself up for a chance.

Who knows? Maybe what you're doing is something you're surprisingly really good at, but you'd never know because your initial impression of the project will stay with you until you've convinced yourself otherwise. For example, if you're given something new to work on and say "wow, that's a lot of work." I 100% guarantee it will indeed be a lot of work for you. Now let's just say you finished all of the work and decide, "hey, that wasn't so bad after all." The problem is you worked through your entire project with the mindset that it was going to be difficult and long and therefore did not have the best outlook you could've had towards it. In addition, you also still have the habit of groaning every time you're given something new to work on. Realistically speaking, everything on Earth takes time to complete, and it will always be as much work as you believe it is. So yes, in order to find motivation to finish something, you're going to want to have motivation from the start.

I'm not going to act like I get all jittery every time I start a new project or assignment to complete either, I still occasionally look at assignments and make judgements of the difficulty myself. But I find that when I look at projects as conquests rather than obstacles, it helps my attitude a lot. And this doesn't just apply to students. Whether you're working on a side project like a new book or film or invention, motivate yourself by telling yourself it won't be so hard and difficult as long as you say it is.

2) Find Yourself in What You Do

With a bunch of work constantly flooding our heads and spiraling us into stress, it can be easy to forget that we are only a human doing human work. Don't let yourself be so discouraged by those formulas, or meeting a word limit, or finding x. A human created all of those things, so a human can complete them.

When I say find yourself in what you do, I am referring to finding your own perspective on the work. You're allowed to have opinions on what you're doing, you're also allowed to enjoy working on whatever you're doing. In fact, you should be appreciating what you're doing once and a while. Call yourself out and give yourself a pat on the back because positive reinforcement will encourage that wonderous work ethic you need and lead drive your motivation for future projects. Try to enjoy the process instead, which means taking necessary breaks and allowing yourself to breathe.

Another way I like to find myself invested in my work is by putting on some nice lo-fi or jazz while I enter my own little world and work away. I know many people prefer working in silence, and that's perfectly fine too. The point is to find what works best for you, work in comfortability, relax your mind and focus. Get lost in your work and I promise you it will be a whole lot easier. Give yourself time and don't force things because that will always turn into disaster and instill bad habits.

When I was younger and wrote novels for fun, occasionally I'd be so driven to reach the end that I didn't meet the expectations I wanted for myself. Mind me, I did not plan as much as I should have, which can be a big motivator to finish as you can visually track your steps and find where you're going, but once I started being honest about my work and truly thought about what exactly I was doing... everything became so much easier.

3) Let the Possibilities Excite You

This is like one of those "the only limit is your imagination" things. Humans are capable of so many things it's absolutely ridiculous. The best part is we don't even realize it. I've read several stories of people lifting cars to save their family members at times of crises (no seriously, look it up, it's crazy), and most of the time they would've never believed in a million years they'd have to strength to do it. But in that time of crises, it was their mind that opened up to the possibility of lifting the car to help despite the slim chances, and it paid off because it worked. Now if an everyday human can lift a car, I'm quite sure you could complete a project.

Explore possibilities within yourself, don't be so quick to discredit your abilities because you haven't done something before or may have sucked in the past. You change everyday. You think about something new everyday. Humans are mindful creatures, our thoughts control us more than anything. Maybe you want to start a new project but don't believe you're capable of doing so, or maybe you don't want to work on something because you've convinced yourself that it's not your thing. Well, good news, you were born capable. You always had the ability to start, now all you have to do is try. Let the possibility of you getting 100% on your assignment or becoming the next Best Selling New York Times Author wander through your mind. Drink in those all the possibilities and use it as motivation to produce the best thing.

But what if you explored the possibilities and didn't do as well as you thought? Even better! You'll now be able to identify where you went wrong and have a much higher chance of success the next time. Not every possibility leads to greatness, but all greatness starts with a possibility. You're in charge of your life and you dictate the road you want to travel. Let any chance sit in your mind and use it as a motivator.

4) The Result Will Be Damn Worth It

You probably know this, but most of us will start things with the pleasure of knowing there's an ending. Once that ending is achieved, a strong sense of relief consumes us - and almost nothing matches that feeling. All that time you put into completing your work, no matter how big or small, was worth it for that exact moment. Being done and being able to finally move on, that is part of what you crave for most of the journey (unless you were enjoying the ride, of course, which would be even better!). All that work you put in for a result - I mean any result - was worth it.

Ultimately, motivation is an emotion - a feeling only you can create and pursue for yourself. Allow yourself to be inspired by the things around you. Find passion in whatever kind of work you're doing (yeah, I'm talking paperwork too). You need to train your mind to recognize motivation as a great feeling, a wonderful feeling, and doing so will grant you with an amazing thing called "productivity." Believe it or not, that feeling is inside of you right now. It is very well alive and waiting to be activated.

Take the time to acknowledge when you've finished. While you're done, there are probably ten other people who are still procrastinating and are dying to read this article (you should send it to them, by the way). Acknowledging your ending will remind you that your beginnings are worth it. You will quickly understand motivation creates dedication, and dedication creates results.

With all this being said, it's time to get back to work. I hope these few mindful tips motivate you through your journeys of work in your life. Reread this whenever you need a reminder. I was motivated enough to write this, so I'm passing some of that energy onto you right now. Good luck, and stay motivated!