Complete or Continue? – Which works best for you?

Your words could be putting you under unnecessary pressure…

Last week, I suggested some shifts in language and I’m continuing the theme (ok I admit it, I actually wrote most of this week’s Monday Thought LAST Monday because there was just SO much to say that I’ve ended up splitting it up!) 

Are you aware that you can put uneessary pressure on yourself in the choice of words you use to give yourself instructions (those verbs we spoke of last week).  
 
Let me share an example.  

A client of mine was using a verb to set her actions up in her to do list (brownie points), but she was feeling despondent and not motivated to get on with the things on the list.  

What I realised on looking through her list with her was this: She was using verbs that set too high an expectation of what was possible in an allocated amount of time. The words that were letting her down were Complete, Finish, and Publish in this instance.   

• Complete social media posting 

• Publish newsletter 

• Finish letter to solicitor 

All that ‘finality’ meant that she was putting herself under (un-needed) pressure and it felt to her like a lot was riding on these. Small changes in language were needed to help her address time correctly. Here’s what ended up working for her – meaning the pressure was off and productivity was back on the menu:  

• Continue daily social media posting (making it more manageable by knowing she only had to post one thing a do) 

• Write draft version newsletter (with investigation it turned out it was not due out until the next week so ‘publish’ put a false and pressuring deadline in place inside her) 

• Send letter to solicitor (this was a personal change; we broadened the impact out to make it easier for her to ‘finish’ the letter – it was an emotive piece and ‘finish’ made her not want to face the task) 

So my call this week for you is to test out what instructions you are giving yourself, and to notice if you are feeling pressure of doing (or noticing that you are NOT doing because there’s too much pressure).  Some of it might be that you are putting too many things on a list (that’s a different action for us to talk through at some point). But some of it is that you are using words that make too big a demand on you because those words make you feel the pressure.  
 

Which feels better to you: Continue or Complete?   
This week, I invite you to check out how the words impact on your ability to DO something. Does the verb you are using at the start of a sentence make you feel relaxed and/or appropriately challenged to really get done what needs doing, in the time you have available or allocated?  

If not, find a different one.