Share the Love – Celebrate Completion

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

I’ve been working on a yoga and cooking studio in Alaska to teach the Happiness Project course in person. Our goal for this year was to have the outside of the studio weathered in by the winter. YEAH – we finished!!! I am building this with a cousin who has extensive construction experience. We work on it as we can -but do have our deadlines driven primarily by the seasons. We had a general contractor who was horrible – so we rebooted the project and went at it a different way that has also been a lot more fun. In Alaska, sometimes you need to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get things done yourself. Talk about an empowering life experience.

My father used to say to me when I was a kid – “When you procrastinate you are depriving yourself of the value of what you want to create. Just FINISH.” It became part of who I am to focus, and finish – FAST. I used to joke in this job I had as a research scientist that I was a control freak (what project manager has not been accused of that?). But one of my colleagues said – “No you’re not a control freak, you are a completion nut.”

So yes, I have this love affair with completion. This also extends to setting up all of Cheetah’s programs so our students become intrinsically motivated to finish whatever course they start with us. Here are some things that help our students finish what they start:

We start every class with the end in mind. For example – in our PMP programs – our students have to have their PMP exam scheduled for the day after they complete our program. Nothing propels one forward like a very firm due date. Think having a baby here – you know that baby is going to arrive between the 9th and 10th month. The flurry of activity that happens right before the baby is due to show up is nothing short of remarkable.
We have our students create a schedule for themselves. This way they get lots of little completion wins. Success breeds success in the completion game.
Cheetah students don’t just develop the schedule though and never refer back to it again. At the end of every module – they go back and revisit their schedule. They assess how well they did on their estimates and replot their course for their next module. It matters not what the course is – the learning schedule is an embedded part of all Cheetah Learning classes.
We celebrate their completion with them. We hear back years after our students have completed our courses – how much completing their program built their confidence. Give this a try – whenever you need a confidence boost – take on something that is easy to complete – like unloading the dishwasher or cleaning the kitchen. When you’re done, take a step back and review what you completed. Notice what this does for your self-esteem and confidence. This confidence can help you finish other bigger goals.

To help you celebrate completion this year, you can sign up for any of our online courses for $20 per PDU. Just email info@cheetahlearning.com with the course you want to take and we’ll send you a promotion code for it.