Outstanding – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

What we leave half done costs us more than we think

[Listen to this post on my podcast]

When someone feels tired, scattered or unmotivated, we tend to assume they have too much work. More often, they have too many open loops. Every loose end claims a sliver of our attention, even when we’re doing nothing about it. It’s like having too many browser tabs open: you’re not looking at them, yet the whole machine slows down.

There’s something deeper going on. A loose end is almost always a promise we didn’t keep, even if the only person we made it to was ourselves. "This week I’ll start exercising." "I’m going to write to so-and-so." "Once this project is done, I’ll clear my desk." When those promises go unkept, part of us keeps score. Bit by bit we trust our own word less, and that shapes how we commit to everything else.

That’s why I like a very simple definition of integrity: the gap between what I said and what I did. The smaller the gap, the more at peace you are and the more your word is worth. The bigger it gets, the heavier the load you carry. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about not letting things pile up.

Funny thing is, closing a loop rarely takes as much as we feared. The conversation we dodged for months usually lasts ten minutes. The call, three. What weighed on us was the waiting. And once it’s done, we find energy we didn’t know we had, and we think: I had no idea I’d feel this much lighter.

Teams go through the same thing on a bigger scale. Agreements nobody honors, recognition that never comes, the touchy issue between two departments that everyone knows about and no one will touch. Each of those loose ends slows the team down and chips away at trust. Every leader has them. Good leaders name them, put them on the table and decide which to close, which to renegotiate and which to let go of honestly. Letting go counts as closing, as long as you do it deliberately.

With the year winding down, this is a good time to do it. Before you set a dozen new goals, take stock of what you’re carrying and ask whether it still makes sense. Unfinished business asks something of us every day, even when we don’t notice. Closing it out is a very practical way to live with purpose.

Here are a few questions for this week. What have you left open for months, even though you know exactly what it would take to close it? Who do you owe a conversation, an answer or an apology? And on your team, which broken agreement has nobody mentioned since?

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. Try this today: write down ten loose ends. Pick the smallest one and close it before the day is out. You’ll feel the difference tomorrow.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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