Most people fail to achieve the goals they set.
As a result, many of them get discouraged and frustrated at themselves and their goals. They start thinking that goals are a bad strategy and so they avoid setting them at all.
But if their goal was specific and tangible, then chances are the problem wasn’t the goal; the problem was what happened after they set their goal. It’s a common mistake and one that prevents people from achieving their dreams, even with the best plan possible.
You Need to Commit to Your Goals to Make Them Reality
Your goals are worthless without commitment.
If you aren’t serious about what you want to achieve, you’ll lose momentum after a few days or weeks and eventually quit. You’ll be thrown off by all the inevitable obstacles and challenges along your journey.
Why? Goals are hard to achieve, especially big ones that require you to transform yourself. But without 100% commitment, you’ll drift back to the easier path — the path of least resistance—that takes you further away from your dreams. As a result, you’ll set goals and “try your best,” but inevitably fall back to your previous habits when things get tough.
We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.
― Robert Brault
It’s a slippery slope to continually break the promises you make to yourself. I know people who constantly tell themselves (and everyone around them) they’ll do something, but find excuses and fail to hold themselves accountable. The problem becomes this: Now, every time they set a goal, they won’t believe themselves and they’ll expect themselves to not follow through.
That is a very dangerous place to be.
If you get into a habit of breaking your own promises, you’ll gradually lose confidence, trust, and hope. You’ll stop believing yourself, which makes it even harder to achieve your goals in the first place.
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
— Mahatma Gandhi
That’s why your commitment to your goals is more important than the goals themselves. Because without that determination, your goals become lies to yourself. And the more that happens, the more unsatisfied you’ll feel.
How to Expose Your Current Commitments
You can tell what someone is actually committed to in life based on what they do every day.
For example, if someone regularly exercises and eats healthy, they’re committed to improving their health and fitness; if they don’t, they’re not committed no matter what they say.
On the other hand, if they spend time on meaningless activities — even though they say they’re “serious” about their goals — they’re committed to those distractions and staying stuck no matter what they say.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
— Will Durant
Benjamin Hardy, Ph.D. once asked, “If you repeated today every day for the next year, realistically, where would you end up?”
Think about your answer.
What are you doing every day? How do you spend your time? If you’re not consistently working toward your goals, how can you honestly say you’re committed to them? And in the meantime, what do your current habits and routines uncover about your actual commitments?
If they’re incongruent with your goals, it’s time to commit to better habits. Each day adds up over time.
How to Commit to Your Goals
How badly do you want your goals? How much are you willing to endure to make them happen?
To fully commit, you have to want your goals with a burning intensity.
To fully commit, you have to want your goals badly.
If you don’t want them that badly, you might have to admit they aren’t real goals. Maybe they’re “nice to have,” but aren’t goals you’ll stake everything on. Maybe you “want” them, but only if they fall on your lap.
Wanting alone is useless. Have you noticed that wanting doesn’t necessarily lead to “having”? Notice also that wanting without having leads to more wanting…Wealth does not come from merely wanting it. How do you know this is true? With a simple reality check: billions of people want to be rich, relatively few are… In my experience, getting rich takes focus, courage, knowledge, expertise, 100 percent of your effort, a never-give-up attitude, and of course a rich mind-set. You also have to believe in your heart of hearts that you can create wealth and that you absolutely deserve it. Again, what this means is that, if you are not fully, totally, and truly committed to creating wealth, chances are you won’t.
— T. Harv Eker
Once you desire your goals with every cell of your body, you won’t make excuses. Instead, you’ll find a way on the good days and the bad days. You’ll reshape and structure your environment so that you have no other choice but to move forward.
For example, two years ago, I was considering moving to Europe. But the hardest part wasn’t the process of selling and donating my possessions and deactivating everything in the US.
The hardest part was committing 100%. The hardest part was making a firm decision, saying, “There’s no going back,” and keeping that promise to myself, no matter what.
And once I did it, everything else was easy.
After you commit, you transform your posture. You go from “hoping” to “doing whatever it takes” to succeed. You’ve burned the ships. And because of that, your world will transform too.
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
— William H. Murray
What will get you to your goals?
Just do that.
Sure, some of those things aren’t “fun” and things you’ll say “fuck yes” to. Instead, they might be demanding, risky, or uncomfortable.
But that’s why it’s so important to commit. Because you’ll be willing to make sacrifices in the short term to get what you want in the long term. And that’s what’s willchange your life.
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’
— Muhammad Ali
Otherwise, you’ll do what’s “fun” and what you want to say “fuck yes” to, but you won’t get results. Years later, you still won’t get results and you’ll wonder why you’re not having “fun” or saying “fuck yes” to them anymore.
Why You Need Commitments in Life
At this point, you might realize you don’t want to commit to some of your current goals. That’s fine. (Better to know now than later.)
But I urge you: If you want a life of fulfillment and meaning, find something to commit to. Find a purpose that drives you. Find a reason for being that inspires you to be earnest with each day. That commitment, in and of itself, will enhance your life in countless ways.
It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance.
— Albert Einstein
I’ve learned there’s no greater feeling than keeping the promises we make to ourselves. There’s an overwhelming feeling of pride, joy, love, and gratitude that goes beyond the goal itself and gives you the confidence you can achieve anything.
I sincerely hope you experience that feeling many times in your life.
Commit to your goals.
Keep the promises to make to yourself.
And when you finally achieve them, you’ll know it was all worth it.
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