You’ve been working on a personal project for eight months.

You’ve made some progress, but not nearly as much as you would have liked.

You’re about ready to call it quits, but something in your heart says you should continue on, and finish what you started.    

In this post, I offer five quick reasons as to why you should push through and complete what you initially set out to do.

Take a deep breath, focus your mind, and take action.

You can do this!

You’ve come too far to turn around.

If you decide to walk from your home to your local park, you don’t stop and turn around when you’ve reached the halfway point.

Similarly, you shouldn’t backtrack just because your goal or goals seem too far off in the distance.

Open your journal or calendar, and look back on all of your accomplishments.

How far have you come along? What have you achieved? Does it really make sense to give up now?

You can always try again tomorrow.

Sure, you might not have checked off several tasks from your to-do list today, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do so tomorrow, or the day after, and the day after that. Nothing is restricting you from trying again tomorrow.

Calmly accept what you accomplished (or didn’t accomplish) today. Once you’ve done that, you can welcome the new day, and get back on track.

You are only in competition with yourself.

It’s all too easy to look across at what your friends and associates are doing and compare yourself to them.

But you know what? It really doesn’t matter what they are doing because you are not living their life. You are living your own life.

So what if someone else wrote a book, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, or finished first place in a 10K? Always strive to be a better version of yourself today, than you were yesterday. That’s all that really matters.

You never know who will be inspired by your actions.

As you toil away in your home office, craft room, garage, or at the gym, volunteer center, or park, something is happening.

Someone is watching you put your energy, attention, and love into your goals.

Just think: you could inspire or motivate a family member, friend, neighbor, acquaintance, or a complete stranger to shake up their life, and start pursuing their dreams and goals.

Who are you inspiring with your actions? It’s a humbling thought.

You’ll experience a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

We’re all familiar with starting projects. But how many of are us are familiar with finishing a project?

Seeing a project through to completion is grueling, painstaking, and sometimes anxiety-inducing work.

It can be extremely difficult when you’re neck-deep in paperwork, revisions, and rehearsals. But the feeling you get when you finish that long-overdue project…ah, it’s a remarkable feeling that has to be experienced first-hand.

Besides, when you’re finished, you can proudly showcase your hard work, plus, you’ll have some great stories to tell.       

How about you? Have you ever thought about giving up on a personal or work project? How did you motivate yourself to stay the course and get it done? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!