‘Finish. The Things. You Start.’

Check out this framed poster.

This poster is a celebration of the LSU Tiger Football team - 2011 SEC Champions and National Runner-Up.

It hangs to the right of another framed poster above my television in Fort Worth, Texas. That is the 50th Anniversary of the College World Series, in Omaha, Nebraska, where LSU second baseman Warren Morris drilled a 2-out home run in the bottom of the ninth to shock Miami to steal the National Championship.

I wake up to both posters. Every day.

But the one to the right, the one you see here, gets my attention first. Every time.

Why?

Well… the one team to the left finished. The team to the right… didn’t.

That one hurts worse. Obviously.

Here’s what sucks about this poster: the team it celebrates beat the Rose Bowl champion, the Orange Bowl champion, the Cotton Bowl champion, and, sadly, the National champion.

If they would have got it done that one last time, experts talk about them in the ‘best ever’ talk. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Any time people come in my room and see this poster, they always ask, ‘Um… didn’t you get your ass kicked in that game?’

‘Yes,’ I reply.

But a lesson was learned that day. January 9, 2012. 1/9/12 (the date LSU fans don’t talk about).

That lesson is: finish the things you start.

It can be anything still in your control. It can be that book you mapped out but never started, that song you can’t finish, the food on your plate.

It’s never good to leave things unfinished. That 2011 LSU Football team obviously can’t get a rematch eight years later. But you can learn from your mistakes and press forward.

With the College Football Playoff looming on the horizon, the LSU Tigers, as a team, can certainly lay this bad memory to rest if they can finish the things they started, here in 2019.

Which will result in a new poster I can post in my room. Which will get me inspired to do some finishing of my own.