Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome. Welcome to Finish Strong Friday. You made it and you're on the sweet spot where science meets the soul. I'm Dr Derek Sweet. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a board certified psychiatrist. I specialize in sports psychiatry and high performance.

Speaker 1: 0:25

Well, today we're diving into the psychology behind why we leave tasks unfinished and, more importantly, how to overcome these hurdles. How do we become a strong finisher? After all, this is Finish Strong Friday. Let's explore science and wisdom that can guide us perhaps into a Finish Strong Friday consciousness. Why do we struggle? Why? Why do we struggle to finish what we start?

Speaker 1: 1:01

Have you ever heard of the Zeigarnik effect? You may not have. It's a crazy effect from the Gestalt psychology school that says that the way the brain is wired, that we are like freaked out when unfinished tasks are in our minds, like we get more spazzed out by open loops, that things that are not finished and closed tend to make us crazy and make us feel like we're not ourselves. Well, it can do two things, this Zygonik effect. It can motivate us to finish or, in most cases, it paralyzes us and keeps us from finishing and getting to the finish line. So the way you beat this Zygrenic effect is to harness, to try to harness all of your energy into starting one small task, just taking one action, like we've talked about before. You have to start the task even if you can't finish them immediately, because initiating the project will increase your commitment to completing it, as your mind will typically seek to resolve the unfinished business. So you've got to start and that's the key.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Okay, so that's the first reason people don't finish strong is this zionic effect, and I told you all about it. The second reason is a self-handicapping kind of behavior where we set up barriers to protect our self-esteem. This is from social psychology and what this involves is, you know, we create these obstacles or excuses to justify our potential failures. So by doing this, we protect our self-esteem and so we attribute the failure to some external factor rather than a personal shortcoming in us. So it must be that that thing out there is the reason I didn't do well, as opposed to taking responsibility, and that fear of it being you or me not doing well can lead to procrastination and us not completing our tasks. So this sort of setting up a barrier to protect yourself from the possibility that you might fail is a very, very common psychological trick we play on ourselves and the way we get around that is to recognize and challenge the self-defeating behaviors, just to recognize that. That's what's going on.

Speaker 1: 3:46

And what I do is, when somebody comes to me and we want to talk about this, we focus on setting realistic goals and we embrace what we call a growth mindset, understanding that effort and persistence can lead to great improvement. And that's what you need to finish strong. Don't only look at the finish line. Look at your effort, look at your persistence, look at your ability to be resilient, and that kind of focus can help get you past this sort of self-handicapping barrier that you set up to not do the work and not finish. The last one Look one, look, listen. Let me review. We've talked about two things right, the zygarnik effect I talked to you about that, that's, unfinished tasks creating drama in your head, okay, and the second one was self-handicapping behaviors, where you set up this barrier because you're afraid that you might personally not be able to do it, that you maybe you're not feeling good enough, and we talked about how to defeat that by taking one small step and then focusing on your perseverance, your effort and your resilience and seeing a growth mindset get you forward, as opposed to a fixed mindset, not win or lose. It's about my effort. And now the third one.

Speaker 1: 5:09

The third reason that we don't finish is something called multitasking. I think the new term is switch tasking uh, the idea of that. You're handling multiple things simultaneously, but really what you're doing is just switching from one thing to the other, to the other, and you're not really accomplishing anything. You're mistaking activity and action for progress, and sometimes that can feel good, but it can lead to a lot of errors, a lot of frustration and, at the end of the day, what did I really get done? So the solution for that is to prioritize your tasks and to focus on them one at a time.

Speaker 1: 5:54

This approach of just taking one task at a time will enhance your concentration and it will enhance the quality of your work and it will lead to a better outcome. So you don't have to be busy doing 15 things at once, but you have to catch yourself when you're task switching or you're multitasking and recognize that this is your way of potentially actually procrastinating or not doing what you should do. So look, ancient wisdom. Ancient wisdom tells us that we have to persevere right, that you will receive what is promised for you after you've run the race and you have to run the race without getting weary and that the spirit of God will give you this energy. Spirit of God will give you this energy to spread your wings and to fly at these altitudes, almost like an eagle would fly, and then to run swiftly and to get the crown and the prize at the end. So also, having a goal right, having an end goal in mind and knowing what your end goal is can be very, very helpful here.

Speaker 1: 7:03

So finishing what we start is not just about productivity. It's about building the character and the resilience you need so that you can overcome any psychological barrier right that is in your way. And it's also about taking the obstacle, looking at the obstacle and finding a way through the obstacle and making the obstacle. Looking at the obstacle and finding a way through the obstacle and making the obstacle be the thing that makes you stronger. There's a saying the obstacle is not in the way, the obstacle is the way. All right now, this is Dr Derek Sweet. Let's make this Finish Strong Friday a testament of our commitment and our perseverance. Why not? Okay now, if you'd like to follow me and you'd like more, please be sure to join me on Twitter, on Instagram, on LinkedIn. I am even on YouTube and threads. I'll see you tomorrow, tomorrow's self-care Saturday. Can't wait, meet you there.