Achieving Your Goals Part III – Make a Commitment

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“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi

Another critical element of success in achieving your goals is to make a commitment. Again this may seem obvious but without a commitment you are almost certain to fail.

Why people fail to achieve their goals

One of the primary reasons that people fail to achieve their goals is a lack of commitment. There are some things that you start and you know that you must finish – there is no other option. In this case you are 100% committed to finishing. If you have mixed up a batch of cement to plaster your wall, you know that you must finish the job, and finish the cement before it hardens because you cannot put the cement away until later. You must finish the job. You are 100% committed to finishing the job.

Think about the difference if you have a report to do, but no particular deadline, as opposed to if the Company Presdient calls to ask you for the report. In the second case you suddenly become committed to finishing that report in a timely fashion. You put all your energy into it, and finish it properly and as soon as possible. You do not allow yourself to be distracted and you keep the goal in mind constantly. You are in essence 100% committed to finishing that report on time.

Using motivation to become committed

It would be nice if we could just flip a switch and become committed to the successfully achievement of our goals. But its not that simple is it?  Even for goals that we really want? What is required is a compelling reason to be committed. How much easier is it to lose 15 pounds if your doctor threatens you with surgery if you don’t lose it, than if you want to lose the weight just to look better? In order to become truly committed to your goal you must create compelling reasons to achieve it.

Telling your friends about your goal is one way to create a compelling reason. It is one way to make a commitment to your goal. It makes you more determined to succeed. You have more at stake now – your good word is at stake. Your reputation is at stake. Your pride is at stake. How will you face them if you don’t achieve your goal? This increases your commitment to the goal.

You must condition yourself to believe that failure is not an option. That you must succeed. Buy an expensive pair of jeans 2 sizes smaller. You have used your hard earned money to make commitment in this instance. Instead of enrolling in the monthly gym membership, enroll for the yearly one – will you really let your money go to waste by not going to the gym? Again, you are making a commitment and creating a compelling reason to stick with it and succeed.

Commit to a schedule with a running partner, enroll in the class you need to reeducate yourself, go through your kitchen and remove all the fattening foods. All of these are examples of making a commitment.

Commit while you are still excited

One important thing to remember about making a commitment is that it is important to do it when you have just made your goal and you are still excited and determined to succeed. The fact is that your initial motivation will fade a little as time goes by. Inertia will kick in, laziness, resistance to change – all these afflict you at some point. So you need to capitalize on your initial excitement and motivation. If you doubt this then think back to the last time you set your mind to achieving some goal – think about your initial decision and how gung ho you were – and then think about how you felt about it a couple weeks later. Chances are your initial gusto faded when other distractions got in your way and you soon lost your motivation and never achieved the goal. So while you are still excited about the goal, you need to make the commitment and put in place as many compelling reasons as you can to keep that commitment strong even when you stop feeling so excited and motivated.

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Next article in the Achieving Your Goals Series: Staying Motivated

Related Articles:

• Achieving Your Goals Part I – Goal Identification
• Achieving Your Goals Part II – Form a Goal Plan
• Achieving Your Goals Part IV – Staying Motivated
• Achieving Your Goals Part V – Change Your Environment
• Achieving Your Goals Part VI – Change Your Thinking
• Achieving Your Goals Part VII – Discipline and Vocabulary

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 1:50 pm and is filed under A New Start, Goals . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.