Let down by the finish

Cycling home this morning the last few miles of a ride with the York Peddlers that was rather more competitive than expected, I got thinking.

My mind wandered back to my NLP training where it became apparent that I am good at starting things. But, not at finishing them.  I have always viewed this in a work context. Not necessarily a problem.  I often get an opportunity and have to shape it into something tangible, get agreement for an approach to realise it, design the how and then......hand it over to some else to deliver and finish. No problem. This fitted my job perfectly.

Then today this realisation made sense of the morning I had had.
When we all met up, it was cold and windy. Being January, I had no intention of really going for it because I knew that the winter months and the ensuing inactivity had reduced my fitness and made my bike skills rusty. However, I soon ended up at the front of the group. My cycling was tidy, even and efficient up the hills.  I surprised myself by lightly bouncing up Terrington bank and other hills.  I was always aware of where everyone else was and made sure I looked out for them, letting them sit on my wheel for shelter and knocking back the speed to keep the group together.  The start had been awesome, striking an almost perfect balance between building a future foundation of fitness and stretching myself just enough.

Wind forward to the last 5 miles and it all changed.  My mind emptied and I lost focus.  What was I thinking.  Well my mind was a big lot of nothing. Blank. My self-belief vanished.  I tried to but suddenly, I couldn't even hold the wheel of any of my club mates. As they disappeared with a mile to go, so did any speed I had.

My club mates however were motivated by the end. They had hung on for most of the ride and the thought of the end seemed to energise them. No matter how much the hills had hurt them and the grinding effort to climb the hills, when the end could be sniffed, they had a plan and were able to step up at the right moment.   For me it was the opposite.  The thought of the end simply drained me, this time.

What are you best? Are you like me good at starting things? Or continuing things or finishing things?
I am now going to change my thoughts about finishing.  It is clear I need a finishing strategy.  Sometimes starting things and setting things up for others is great. I now want to be the first one through the ticker tape.
It it time to finish.

Maybe this is another modelling project......