How to End Things – Part One

 The following article is taken from “The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning“

The Five Steps to end the Right Thing in The Right Way at the Right Time (Overview)

In this article, we will look at the five steps people go through to make a significant change in their life.

These changes or endings  in this process might cover something dramatic such as quitting smoking, losing weight or ending a relationship or a a leader firing someone.

So here they are; the five steps to ending the right thing in the right way at the right time.

Step One:

Preclude Problems Proactively by Pruning the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Things from Your Life, Continuously

Step Two:

See Endings as a Normal Part of Business and Life Instead of as a Problem

Step Three:

Identify the Internal Maps That Keep You From Executing Necessary Endings.

Step Four:

Understand, leverage and apply the notion of hopelessness effectively to your situation
to motivate and effect the changes you need to make.

Step Five:

Strategy and Implementation: How to Put an End to Things

In this and the following two articles we will explore Step Number Two.

Step Two: See Endings as a Normal Part of Business and Life Instead of as a Problem

The Good Cannot Begin Until the Bad Ends

Although understanding the need to prune things is very important, the truth is that still things change and come to an end.

This we know.

But of equal importance is knowing that the good thing cannot begin until the bad thing ends.

That this is normal; it is how life happens.

A fundamental, if not neglected and misunderstood principle in life is that success and goodness, life itself, is so often borne of, forged in the crucible we call experience and disappointment.

Our most noble efforts are no longer useful or productive and must come to an end.

In effect, within the experience of failure itself are the very seeds of something new and better, if not our greatest triumph.

More Often than not, this is how Life Really Works

You can measure time in seasons.

Its passages are quite predictable.

Seasons: Endings are Normal and Inevitable

Time Brings an End to Some Things Naturally

In life things ultimately and assuredly end.

Human existence thus demands ceaseless adaptation.

The passage of time is made up of seasons, an arbitrary yet natural process within which things incontrovertibly change and then cease to be.

Life is composed of cycles and seasons.

That is the essential nature of everything.

1. Accept Life Cycles and Seasons of Life

The ceaseless, shifting nature of life is an undeniable truth.

Everything has its’ own life cycle.

There is a time to be born and a time to die.

And in between birth and life, there is a ceaseless ebbing and flowing, we call seasons.

And each season is in turn made up of its’ own crescendos and decrescendos.

Spring: A Time for Sowing and Beginnings

Where there is nothing but a waiting field, the farmer sows seeds in the expectation that they will take root and produce a harvest.

The tasks of spring include:

• Cleaning out what is left over from the winter’s dying plants
• Gathering seeds
• Figuring out which fields you are going to work
• Making sure you have the resources to take you through the year
• Actual sowing and planting
• Protecting seedlings from the elements and intruders
• Nurturing the vision of the harvest to guide the task.

Summer: A Time to Tend To What Has Taken Root

The tasks of summer include:

• Directing resources to ensure the crops are growing
• Preventing disease and keeping insects and other pests away
• Watering, fertilizing, and pruning
• Supporting the plants until they can stand on their own
• Monitoring, managing, and protecting the crops for the future.

Fall:  A Time to Harvest 

• Acting with urgency to get crops out of the field before they rot or are damaged by rain or the cold of winter
• Gathering the harvest completely, not leaving anything in the field
• Harvesting with efficiency and watching the costs
• Harvesting with care so you don’t destroy the field in the process.

Winter: A Time Where Everything Dies But Preparations Continue.

• The tasks of winter include:
• Getting the financials in order
• Squaring accounts with lenders for last years’ crops and lining up next year’s money
• Repairing equipment and getting it ready for next year
• Preparing fields for the upcoming year
• Reviewing the successes and failures of the past year and tweaking things to do everything better next year.

The problem for many of us is that we do not accept or we willfully ignore these seasons.

In part two we will discuss why and how to leverage the seasons to our advantage.

For more on this topic, we recommend the following
	The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning Knowing When Things Should End and How to End Them Click Here For Video and Full Description   If you found this article useful Email to a Friend