Harness that finishing feeling
December already? If the year has raced past and you’re on your knees with exhaustion, don’t underestimate that finishing feeling. The Germans have a word for it.
Hello!
‘One minute left’ are the most motivating words I hear all week.
Earlier this year I started circuit training. For those of you unfamiliar with this specific form of exercise/self-inflicted torture, it’s endurance training at high-intensity organised in a circuit. Over 45 agonising minutes we perform five minute sets of exercises at different ‘stations’.
Typically, I’ll launch into a new set full of vigour - this is such a breeze. By minute one I am flagging, by minute two I’m physically spent, by minute three I’m having an existential crisis questioning all my life choices, why I thought this was a good idea, believing that I can’t sustain this level of activity, everything hurts and I want to give up and never move my body again except to slip into a warm bath laced with Epsom salts.
Then, the trainer shouts ‘one minute left’ and I am born anew. It’s most uplifting phrase I’ve ever heard, giving me a motivational push like no other. My mind expands, I can do this, I keep going, I finish - triumphant.
On to the next set and the novelty lights me up new exercise, this is a breeze then I swiftly descend into the same trough of despair only to be uplifted by my one-minute warning.
The Germans have a word for that
And the word is ‘endspurt’1 which means the last run to the finishing line. It’s experienced not just with physical exertion but all areas of life.
Take for example my summons earlier this week to Malta to sort out an impasse on my late father’s will.2 The looming year end had kickstarted a legal deadlock (motivated no doubt by the close of the year also being the end of a tax break that the Maltese were keen to exploit - economics loves an incentive).
As writers we harness the endspurt from setting new year resolutions, aiming for competition deadlines, making submissions to writing groups, even the trusty pomodoro technique allows us to adopt a low stakes finishing line.
That finishing feeling
Psychology backs it up. Back in the 1930s a behavioural psychologist called Clark Hull observed a phenomenon called the goal-gradient hypothesis. Though his research followed rats running progressively faster along a straight alley as they neared the end, this effect has also been found in humans, including personal trainers, Maltese notaries and writers.
In short, the closer we get to completing, the more motivated we are to continue working and achieve our goals.
It’s all about perception
Professor Oleg Urminskya at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said: “it’s not the actual distance to the goal that matters in human behavior, but our perception of that distance.”3
He’s right, my body is no more capable towards the end of a set of circuits - quite the opposite - it’s that my mind perceives it to be harder in the middle and easier as the end approaches. Urminskya goes on to say this is form of present-bias, so our cognition recognises, “rewards that we’re closer to achieving”.
How to harness that end of year feeling
Most writers don’t have tattooed, vest-wearing, muscle-bound personal trainers4 on the sidelines encouraging them to finish but we can use the end of the year to get closer to our goals and experience that finishing feeling.
I am not telling you to push yourself harder, but take a moment to consider your goals and figure out your endspurt, a personal run towards the end. Here’s some ideas:
If you have fuel in your tank and love a challenge, then go back to your goal and work out what is left to do. Can you achieve it? Make a plan for the next three weeks and go for it.
If you’re off target don’t worry, you’ve got this. Set yourself a new goal or a milestone that’s quicker, easier and achievable with all the things going on in your life. Focus on being realistic, you’re after a hit of dopamine when you achieve it, which will make you more likely to continue next year.
If you are no longer in the race, then go small, do a pomodoro and write for 25 minutes, set a tiny step to reconnect with your writing, freewrite. I promise just a few minutes will help get you back on track.
If you want a little accountability, share your goal, milestone or tiny step in the comments below. We’re cheering you on, albeit with fewer tattoos and muscles.
Keep writing,
Bec
RESET: Early bird offer closes Monday
If you’re umming and erring over whether you’d like a place on our New Year RESET course perhaps 20% off the price might be a little sweetener? We hope so.
RESET starts in January and over six weeks will give you the endspurt you need to finish your writing project and build a habit that lasts beyond January.
The discount code for the course is earlybird20 and you can grab your place or find out more here.
The finishing line for this offer is Monday 11th of December at 11.30 pm GMT!
Correction. The original article of 8 December 2023 used the word ‘innspurt’ rather than ‘endspurt’. I was quoting the photographer Juergen Teller who in an interview with Vogue said:
“In German, we call it the innspurt: the last run to the finishing line,” Teller says, laughing, as he works on the finishing touches. “It’s been a marathon, but I’m super excited.”
I read that article on a flight and added it to my notes for the newsletter, not checking the reference. Now with wifi and no longer sleep deprived, I have found out that ‘innspurt is Norwegian and the German word is ‘endspurt’.
Thank you to the German speakers who pointed this out. Now which of us is going to tell Vogue?
That dear reader is my excuse for being a few days late with this newsletter - I hope you forgive me. I am back home now and beginning to restore myself. Wow, this year has been a lot.
Katy Milkman & Kassie Brabaw, Why Feeling Close to the Finish Line Makes You Push Harder
Shout out to Liam of Waterside Gym in Hebden Bridge.
Endspurt or innspurt? A German reader has just told me they use 'endspurt'.
To show my workings, I came across 'innspurt' reading a copy of Vogue on the plane out to Malta on Tuesday morning. I bought the glossy mag for the first time in my life for the brilliant Olivia Coleman interview (worth the cover price alone). There was also an interview with the photographer Juergen Teller where he called his upcoming exhibition an 'innspurt'.
I went small and have just written up a little incident at the farmers market this morning. Thank you for the nudge. Now to look up ‘innspurt’/ ‘’endspurt’? Love the insight either way.