Being Successful Includes Finishing Strong

 

by Katherine O'Brien, MA CCPS, Founder Celtic College Consultants

Follow Through

Among other things, it's a key element of one's golf swing and bowling technique, not to mention personal relationships, academic work, business projects, parenting, and more!

Follow through means doing ALL of the parts of a task well, even those "little bits" at the end of the task for project. These seemingly trivial tasks often mean the difference between good, better, and BEST.

How does a person learn to follow through?

First, one must become aware of these tasks, so often overlooked and ignored. At the end of a long effort, it is all too easy to get the main portion of it finished, look a the unfinished tasks, and, in fatigue, decide they aren't important enough to do. Once in a while we are right and nothing notable happens when we skip them. Many times, however, we only learn to notice these tasks after repeated failures. The consequences of skipping them might be lost time, money, or damage to our reputation. Unfortunately, many of us will suffer these consequences several, even many, times before we start to realize that our lack of follow through has not served us well.

Do you want your teen to fail over and over again because of a lack of follow through?

I don't, and I suspect you don't either. That's why I hold my clients accountable. Each of them schedules his or her own meetings, and deals with the consequences of missed meetings, last minute rescheduling, not being prepared for our planned discussion, and other mishaps. One of my many assets in your teen's life is that I am not the parent. I am an outside, trusted professional. I can, and do, say things to teens that parents can't say, or say a "million times" but are not heard. My best client families communicate with me well, which enables me to convey the parents' sentiments to their child, who either hears the message for the "first" time or, because I am also saying it, finally receives the message they have heard from their parents. 

There are countless more ways I hold teens accountable and teach them to follow through, complete their tasks well, fulfill their responsibilities, and begin to reap the rewards of a job well done rather than sort out the mess that happens when they fail to follow through and finish well.

I look forward to speaking with your teen when he or she is in 8th, 9th, 10th, or 11th grade. Summers are KEY times to do college prep work; don't lose out on those many rich opportunities!