Why “Completionism” Is Holding You Back

I recently had a conversation with a friend who had begun a new series of novels during the free time allotted to him in the age of COVID-19. He told me that he hasn’t really enjoyed the content thus far, but he intends to finish it because he "already started it.”

I understand where he is coming from. There is a sense of integrity and accomplishment that comes with finishing what you start, as if it were a moral obligation. This was even pressed into me as a young athlete when my dad would tell my siblings and I, “you need to decide if you want to be on the team, but once you make that decision, you play until the season ends.”

This desire to finish everything you begin is common amongst high performers and entrepreneurs, but it has shown up in many walks of life. The term “completionism” has ties to the video game industry where players take it upon themselves to complete every challenge or level within a game, even if they are not required for the sake of beating the game.

When I learned of this concept toward the end of my college career, I had a revelation. If there are parts of a game that you can “complete” that don’t help you “win,” I bet that is also true of life. I can recall the times I was excited about starting a new book only to be reminded that the one I was trudging through had yet to be completed and demanded my attention. This had the unintended effect of causing me to read less. When I would dutifully will myself finish a book, it was more out of contempt than interest. When I stopped doing this, I enjoyed reading again, and consequently read a lot more.

It is OK to not finish something. In fact, we should be more careful about what we choose to complete. The long-term effect of choosing well, without the loss of time or effort, pays massive dividends over the short term “failure” of choosing not to finish something.

Instead, we should focus on completing things that matter. Things that are required for the sake of “beating the game.” Then we can reach our goals faster. We can do more things that we enjoy or that aid in our development. We can find more time for Steven Covey’s quadrant two tasks, or tasks that are “important, but not urgent” like planning, critical thinking and reflection, rather than being stuck in the quadrant four tasks that are “not important and not urgent.” *

Do you have something in your life you have been working on that maybe isn’t as important you thought? Maybe now is the time to refocus. Over time we can get better at choosing what we begin, but for now let’s get better at choosing what we finish.

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure… but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.” - Francis Chan

*This is taken from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If you haven’t yet, now would be a great time to read it. This one is worth finishing.