When something ends it is done, right? That’s what an end is – it is the conclusion, the farthest point, the termination. We are taught that we need to “fight to the finish” and push through to the end.

What if we started at the finish instead? What if the end was actually the beginning?

I started googling quotes about finishing things (I love quotes – one day I want to be quoted) and I found a lot of them. Every one of those quotes focussed on being first or not quitting. I found plenty to tell me that coming in first was the only option and anything else means I’m a loser.

I would argue that finishing isn’t really the best thing for us. To finish means something is complete (it’s the end), but unless you are running in an actual race, why do you want to be done? What benefit is there is terminating your goal/dream/life?

What if we try this…let’s start at the end and throw the idea of a finish line away. Let’s use our goals as benchmarks rather than end point, and our dreams as motivation rather than the culmination of something. If we reframe the way we think about the finish line, we reframe what success and achievement look like.

The best analogy is the weight loss one. How often does someone lose weight for an occasion? How often does someone have a goal weight in mind? What happens when the party is over and/or the goal weight is met? Nothing. All too often old habits emerge and the person who just achieved their goal slowly starts moving backwards towards the beginning.

You see, when there is an end there is no reason to continue moving forward. You are done, fini, complete.

And that is where we must start in order to be successful and happy long-term. We must fight beyond the invisible finish line and realize that we passed a mile marker, not the end of the road. When we do that, when we understand the the end is actually the beginning over and over again, we are able to keep moving forward and to achieve more and more.

Your pace will vary, your race will be long, but the sense of accomplishment will be incredible – trust me.

Begin at the end. Or better yet, throw the idea of “finish” away completely.