Necessary Endings Can Lead to Improvements in Schedule, Neighborhood

 

Sometimes things have to end to move forward.

There are times when strained finances, fractured relationships, and poor leadership have fractured an organization (or your own personal schedule) to the point that the best thing to do is end it and go in a new direction.

Since 2020, I have found an increased ability to see these types of needed changes. While some may see ending something as absurd, or an indication of failure, one national author certainly does not.

Dr. Henry Cloud makes this claim: "Failing well means ending something that is not working and choosing to do something else better."

Changing things to move forward can apply to organizations, associations, communities, and in your personal life. It is a research-based perspective supported in Dr. Cloud's new book, "Necessary Endings."

If you're hesitant to change when things aren't working out, Dr. Cloud's "Necessary Endings" may be the most important book you read all year.

Say you want to be more available to your neighbors, but cannot find the time. Or you may want to host something in your neighborhood, a social or event or book study, but simply cannot find the energy to do so. Ending something else in your life, work or schedule could provided the needed time.

Cloud, the bestselling author of "Integrity," "The One-Life Solution," and "Boundaries," offers this mindset-altering method for proactively correcting the bad and the broken in our businesses and our lives in this book.

Cloud challenges readers to achieve personal and professional growth and gives crucial insight into making those tough decisions that are standing in the way of a more successful business and, ultimately, a better life.

Here are a few great quotes from the book.

"Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on. Growth itself demands that we move on. Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talents and abilities should afford them."

"Loyalty is important, one of the most important character traits we can have. But loyal love does not mean infinite and/or misplaced responsibility for another's life, nor does it mean that one forever puts up with mistreatment out of inappropriate loyalty."

"Wisdom comes from experience, either the experience of others or of oneself. And to let experience do its work, a person has to be open to receiving the lessons that it has to teach."

"One of the most important types of decision making is deciding what you are not going to do, what you need to eliminate to make room for strategic investments."

"Pruning is strategic. It is directional and forward-looking. It is intentional toward a vision, desires, and objectives that have been clearly defined and are measurable. If you have that, you know what a rose is, and pruning will help you get one of true beauty."

"All of your precious resources—time, energy, talent, passion, money—should only go to the buds of your life or your business that are the best, are fixable, and are indispensable."

I have resigned from four different boards this year. All were "good" endeavors, but they were draining, facing a crisis, and limiting my ability to grow other initiatives that are "best." Sometimes you have to choose to end something to grow something better.

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Does this article make you interested in taking the Engaged Neighbor pledge? Five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge online at http://engagedneighbor.com.

Contact the blog author, David L. Burton at dburton541@yahoo.com.