I hung a sign in my home office today. You hang your id tags on it after you complete a ‘race’, a 5k, 10k the like. These races are on my vision board and my bucket list, ideally to run the whole race. Granted my run is more like a slow jog, slightly quicker walk, not exactly a run. Still I cannot hang my tags unless I truly finish the race. This sign, oddly enough means something pretty significant to me. So does the vision board. It means I need to finish what I start, something I am not stellar at, and something I am working on, something that is a life goal.

How do you become a finisher? It is a real question. I am so good at starting things! It is fun, interesting, new, exciting, and full of possibilities. Finishing, dang, that gets hard, boring, repetitive, hard, really hard. (Did I already say that?) Lets take the blogging thing for example. I was supposed to write 50 blogs the year I turned 50. As I am 50+ now, not thinking I met that goal. That said, I still intend to write the 50 blogs. I have to finish what I started. It just might take me longer to get there.

I am going to throw my husband under the bus here for a minute. He is a good man, a wonderful father and a wonderful husband. Sometimes spouses speak truth to us we don’t want to hear or have a hard time accepting. Scott has done that a few times in my life, sometimes he is 100% right and sometimes he is in the 50% right zone. One side is not easier to take or digest than the other. Often times the more right someone is with their constructive critique the more difficult it is to hear. This time he was in the 50% category and my reaction was one of quiet anger and resentment. I could see the partial truth of what he shared, but resented that this is how he saw me.

What he said was ‘Teresa you never finish what you start, you quit everything.’ He reminded me that I quit college before I got my degree, that I had quit several jobs, that I had a lot of undone projects around the house and I often quit diet and exercise programs. He was right but he was also wrong. I had left college before I finished my degree and I had left several jobs, I still have undone projects and sometimes I diet and exercise more than others. Where he was right? I do often create big dreams and visions and then don’t complete them, my 50 blogs for instance. The 3 or 4 books I intend to write. The 10 rules piece from my uncle. A craft room full of half-finished ideas, weeds in my garden, papers never filed, cookbooks never opened, yoyo dieting, a dusty yoga mat and the list goes on and on and on.

What I disagreed with on this statement was sometimes you have to make changes in life to continue to grow and move forward. That would mean job changes, even college changes and sometimes time use changes. I also never quit something that I place high value on. Things of strong conviction or purpose, nor do I quit on the people I love, even if I face strong opposition or very real obstacles, when I am committed I complete it.

I just want to become more committed. I have beautiful projects that would warm my heart and bless my home or a friends, which need to be completed. Weeds that need to be pulled, races that need to be run, a bucket list that needs to be done. I do need to lose some weight and get into better shape for my life, it is important. I want that statement to be 100% wrong. Accept change when it needs to be made but DO NOT QUIT what needs to be done. Commit and follow through, even if it takes longer than anticipated.

One of the things I like to do in my ‘spare’ time is go to the cute little shops that sell all the stuff other people are so amazingly creative with. The stuff that looks like it was custom designed for Chip and Joanna Gaines. A few weeks ago I found something at one of those shops. The board I just hung up in my office. It says ‘finisher’ on it.

I bought this one for myself because I have a friend I have made in the last couple of years that has really inspired me. She makes me want to get going and finish the races I keep saying I want to do, to really knock off that part of my bucket list. 5K’s, 10K’s and a half marathon, namely Grandma’s in Duluth. Also because it symbolizes this very thing. This truly great voice in my soul that wants to silence the bad voice in my head that hears the ‘you don’t finish what you start’ statement.

My life, my life long race has to be one that finishes. I have to finish this race, finish this life, finish this journey, finish my goals and finish them strong. I have 25 pounds to go, but 35 have come off, I have projects to finish but also projects that have been completed. I have blogs to write but also blogs that have been written. I will finish my Uncles 10 rules, I will finish my book(s), and I will finish my projects, my garden and my cookbooks. My soul wins when it is the voice I listen to. My soul commits. My mind wanders. It is amazing to me how true this statement is. My soul has decided it is ready to be a finisher.

This is going to be a great journey!