Jon Acuff

I think that's one of the realities of goals.

If you ask the average person, take a 30-day goal and divide it into the beginning and middle and end, most people say the beginning's day 1 through 10, middle's day 11 through 20, and the finish is 21 through 30.

And the reality is the beginning is day 1.

The middle is day two through 29 and the end is day 30.

So there's a lot of middle and there's a lot of really easy kind of fun ways to make it through the middle and to not procrastinate through that kind of middle part of a goal.

But I think a lot of people do get kind of lost in the wasteland of a middle.

Well, I mean, the first thing I'd say is they've studied that up and down, and it's just not true.

Scientists have studied that particular thing again and again and again and again, and it's just not ultimately true.

And what I mean by that is nobody's first draft is their best draft.

You might wait until the last second.

You might skid across the finish line, but nobody's...

best draft is their first draft.

If you had the freedom of 24 hours of reflection or three days off from the project and then you came back, you're going to find mistakes.

You're going to find improvements.

And so I do believe and subscribe to the idea that a deadline can be motivating.

I like the rush of a deadline.

I've just learned to have both, meaning I use it as a form of positive motivation, but I don't suffer the consequences of turning something in last second.

I just figure out

Okay, how can I create multiple finish lines in a project?

You know, if I've got a big book due and it's a two-year project, I can't just have one finish line.