Stop thrashing and start finishing

BY MARY-ELIZABETH HARMON
Founding Mother, Chard & Stripes

My plan for Sunday was to write a different blog post than this. But I woke up and my spirit said that my task was to sharpen my axe before chopping.

Meaning, to break free from a funk before writing, which didn’t end up happening.

So, my plan for Monday, or yesterday, was to write about how on Sunday I jumped from YouTube onto the website of a peak performance coach, where I—who puts aliveness over peak performance—felt out of sync with the coach yet compared myself to him and his high-achieving cohort nevertheless.

Next, I’d planned to say how I left said website deeper in a funk and questioning my work, but that I more than recovered with help from Charlie Gilkey.

Finished projects are the bridge from your current reality
to the life you want to live.

CHARLIE GILKEY

I can’t say why I spent a distressing amount of time failing to say all that before going to bed. So my plan for today, Tuesday, is cutting to the chase:

Productivity journals are collecting dust on my shelf.

Though my aim isn’t peak performance, it is to increase my efficiency.

I wouldn’t say that I’m massively thrashing but moderately so:

“Thrashing” is a term Gilkey uses for the “emotional flailing and metawork work we do when we don’t fully commit to our best work.”

Gilkey is a business growth strategist, speaker, author, and founder of Productive Flourishing, a community for creative giants, or people with the vision to see how the world could be. In his words, he helps “people and businesses focus on what matters and execute on it.”

I caught up with Gilkey on a podcast and bought his book, Start Finishing: How to Go From Idea to Done, before the episode was over.

He was on Behind The Brilliance, but has a slew of interviews listed here.

Are you thrashing?

Whether you’re sure or suspect you are, visit Productive Flourishing and start finishing.

There, you can discover your productivity persona, and…

Download planners and worksheets plus a chapter of Start Finishing for free.

As in “one click” kind of free, without the need to cough up your email address.

That touch further confirmed that when I’m ready to hire a coach, Charlie is the one for me.

Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Harmon is a scientist turned storyteller and Founding Mother of Chard & Stripes, a “school” of prosperity making and word-of-mouth marketing platform for businesses in food, fashion and more. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter here.