2 mins read

On the Importance of Following Through

Honoring our commitments

During my morning walks, I mentally run through all the things I need to get done during the day, and in which order I should do them. These are all tasks waiting on my action to either complete or move on to the next step.

This morning I noticed on my list several items that have been reappearing (and not being crossed off) for several days, some even weeks.

This got me thinking about why I still had them on my list.

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Hi, this is John

And this is one of my rare forays from behind the scenes here at Timely Insights. And the extreme rarity is part of what prompted my morning thought process. You see, one of the items on my daily todo list that has kept reappearing without getting done was to write something for TI.

Priorities and mood

Like most of you (well – at least some of you!), the priorities on most of my tasks is influenced by my mood. Sometimes I just don’t feel like dealing with a certain thing, or I’m not in a particularly creative state of mind to write something.

Whatever the case, my mood affects the order that I tackle my tasks.

But that can only go so far.

At some point it becomes silly (if not outright detrimental) to keep putting things off.

We need to either bull our way through whatever is blocking us from working on the task, or re-evaluate our commitment to the task and possibly give it to someone else.

[And this is Steve getting a chance to jump in on an article – sometimes lessons bear repeating until we get them – you can read how it feels good to remove an obligation here – from my perspective back a couple years!-]

The importance of following through

It’s important to follow through on the things we’ve committed to … to do what we’ve said we were going to do.

Not only is it about integrity and the value of our word to others (and to ourselves), but the feeling of positive worth derived from completing even the simplest task is a powerful force indeed. It builds on itself with each complete task and makes it easier to tackle more of the tasks life throws at us.

Have you been putting things off?