Here’s  what I’ve learned about finishing several challenges over the years, as well as failing to finish  a couple of them. (Those two failures were due to injuries and surgeries, but led to top 1000 finishes during the next challenge.)

1. The strongest finish begins with careful planning, goal setting and preparation. By taking the time to plan thoroughly and set excellent, achievable goals, you have invested time, effort and resources into ytour challenge. This is really no different than booking a nice vacation trip at the end of your challenge as a reward. Whatever you can do to add value to your challenge at the beginning will make it more likely you’ll finish it through the hard times.

2. Consistency is critical to success. IF your life is chaotic and you don’t know from one day to the next what you will eat, where you will eat, and and when and how long you’ll work out, and who you will be interacting with, that kind of bvehavior will accumulate stress rather than confidence. It will impede performance. Unless you can master your own schedule, it will master you! You only acquire consistency by two means–discipline and acting your way into better thinking instead of trying to think your way to better actions.

3. Adversity is the pruning shears that will make a better, stronger man or woman out of you. Pruning producces strong, healthy and beautiful plants and trees. And, guess what, it does the same thing for people! So, when that dreaded person, place or thing comes along to knock you out of the catbird seat, just look it in the eye and say, “bring it on!” You don’t have to welcome it or enjoyit or even laugh about adversity, but you DO HAVE TO GO THROUGH IT, or it will go through you! While it’s going on, make good notes, because the judges love the stories of adversities turned into triumph during a transformation.

4. It is the most difficult when you are very close to a victorious finish. Human nature is that the nearer we get to a victory, the more we want to quit! Instead of quitting, put up your countdown calendar, a board with the remaining days you have to go, and check them off, one by one. Seeing how close you are to the end keeps you in the game.

5. Stay in touch! Get close to people on the guestbook or in the other communities.

6. FInish with a fourish! Take professioanl photos.; get tanning either naturally or artificial–it really reveals results best; be creative, you want those photos to be great! Then, buy yourself some new clothes. After all, there’s a new YOU that needs them!