All Is Well That Ends Well

“Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Irrespective of how great the start is—whatever it is you are working on—know that the main thing lies in how you finish. 

Therefore, I ask:  Are you going to finish strong? 

In the book, ‘Good to Great,’ Jim Collins profiled a high school cross country running team that had won two consecutive state championships. He narrated that in a moment of reflection, one of the coaches asked the head coach the following straightforward question: 

“Why are we so successful, when we are not necessarily working harder than the other teams?” 

The answer from the head coach was simple but powerful. He replied: “The reason for our success is that we run best at the end of races; we run best at the end of the season.” 

They won because they performed most excellently, not at the beginning but at the end of their games. Evidently, spectacular success is largely about finishing strong!

If for any reason you've been trampled by the inexorable stride of time, this short piece is meant to inspire you to finish strong nonetheless. 

Be reminded that the ultimate human weakness is the tendency to put things off, especially when we feel the need to ease up a bit, during the course of our hunt.

But now is not the time to ease off a bit. This is the time of vigorous attack. Therefore, fight off laziness with a blast of constructive self-talk. Instead of saying, ‘I am too tired now, moreover I can get to it later,’ say, ‘I will do it now and relax later,’ or ‘I will pay my full due now and play better later.’

Or imagine the great rewards awaiting you after completing a demanding project.

Think ahead to visualize how your life will change for the better if you persevere to follow through till the end. 

To apply this for real, remember the words of Hal Higdon, the four-time winner of World Masters Championships who said: “The pride in finishing a marathon is much greater than all the pain endured during the marathon.”

It Is Not Over Until It Is Over

In sports as in life, fabulous prizes are never awarded at the beginning. The biggest rewards are delayed till the very end. 

You see, it is not those who start great that get the windfalls of life but those who finish; the most valuable rewards go to the courageous few who choose to complete what they started.

So, I challenge you to bring forth your best at this stage of your game; this is how to join the ranks of the accomplished. Now ponder over what the great American inventor, Thomas Edison has to teach us in this regards. He said:

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” To finish strong, you need to keep this in mind.

Know that if you don’t induce yourself to finish what you started, you won’t experience the rich rewards of an all-out commitment: the bliss of seeing the fruits of your toil.

There are millions of starters in this life but it is the few who have the courage to finish that history will honour. This is what took a motivational author, Eric Thomas a while to discover. He said: “I realized the secret to success is finishing! And not just finishing, but finishing strong!”

Again, it doesn't matter what has happened before. It matters what you'll do now. And the better you get at finishing things, the more confidence you'll earn, the more skills you will develop, the more opportunities you’ll have.

Therefore, renew your decision to overcome your struggles. Allow yourself to sprint powerfully across the finish line. Finish with class, finish with guts. Keep going and finish strong!

Finally, to make this important lesson a lifelong habit, I enjoin you to always keep the words of John Heywood, on top of your mind: “All's well that ends well.”