Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.
~ Billy Cox
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It’s February – the second month in to the New Year. Research shows that 80% of us will have given up on our goals by now.
Why?
Because we can’t handle the discomfort.
Or we haven’t made it a priority.
We don’t believe in ourselves.
And we make excuses.
Because we aren’t committed.
What is commitment, exactly?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, commitment is ‘an agreement or pledge; the state of being emotionally impelled’.
If we are going to commit ourselves to our goal this year, we need to promise ourselves that we are going to do everything in our power to make that dream a reality.
Maintaining that resolve to make our goal happen takes a certain level of commitment. And most of us don’t have that.
So how do you keep from being one of the 80% who gives up?
By implementing these techniques to stay committed to your goal.
How To Commit To Your Goals
1. Find your motivation.
I know I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: you need to know your WHY. And not just a “because I want to be skinnier” or “because I want to be out of debt” kind of why.
You need to dig deeper and get at the core of that why. You need to keep asking “why” until there is no more reason. Why do you want to be skinner? Why do you want to fit in to those jeans?
What difference does it make to you? To others? Get at the core of your why – state your intention. Here is where you will find your motivation.
That motivation will help you to commit to your goals.
For help finding your why click here.
2. Make it a priority.
To commit to your goal, you need to be intentional about your day. You cannot think you are going to lose 20 pounds by going to the gym whenever you can squeeze in the time. You need to make it a priority.
Schedule it in. And then do not waiver. That is the time you set aside to make your dream happen, and it needs to be a priority, just like a doctor appointment, work, or your son’s basketball game. Nothing (short of an emergency) should get in the way of this scheduled time.
One of the best things you can do is to set aside time right away in the morning. Make it one of the first things you do when you get up, and it will be done and out of the way. Then you can go about the rest of your day as you normally do, knowing that you already accomplished one task today towards making your dream a reality.
Making it a priority will help you to commit to your goals.
For more help on scheduling time for your goal, click here.
3. Remove small barriers.
There will be obstacles in your path. These usually come in the form of excuses. To commit to your goal, spend some time identifying your obstacles or excuses before you get started.
For example, maybe you want to lose 20 pounds by going to the gym three days a week. But the gym is on the other side of town. And you have to work late tonight. Tomorrow the girls are all going out. It’s already Thursday, you haven’t made it there yet, and Saturday and Sunday you will be out of town. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
You need to identify all of your excuses before they come up and make a plan to squash them. For example, maybe you find a gym that is open all night, so you can still go after work. Maybe you invite the girls to go to the gym with you instead of going out – or before you all go out together. Maybe you find a gym wherever it is that you will be on the weekend.
Removing the barriers will help you to commit to your goals.
4. Have the right mindset.
You need to believe in yourself if you are going to stay committed to your goal.
Not believing in yourself is one of the biggest reasons that you will fail.
Svetlana Whitener, Founder & Chief Coaching Officer (CCO) at InLight Coaching wrote “low self-efficacy, or a lack of confidence in the ability to produce and follow through to desired outcomes, is one of the main causes of a lack of success.” She sees this in her coaching clients. It is their biggest obstacle to success.
Is it yours?
To believe in yourself, you need to crush any negative self-talk immediately.
You cannot allow yourself to think any negative thoughts if you are going to believe in your own abilities. There is no room for doubt. Do not listen to nay-sayers.
You need to commit one hundred percent, squash all negative thoughts and totally believe that you can do this.
Having the right mindset will help you to commit to your goals.
For help with believing in yourself, click here.
5. Keep dreaming.
You know it is important to visualize success if you want to achieve your goal. But you need to visualize it continuously. Every day.
You need to daydream.
While you are brushing your teeth. Look in the mirror and picture what your day would look like at this time next year, after you’ve already met your goal.
While washing dishes or scrubbing toilets. What is life like, now that you have met that goal? Lost those 20 pounds? Got rid of all the debt? Deepened your relationship with your spouse?
Whatever your goal is, dreaming and visualizing what life is like will keep you motivated. It will help you to remember your why.
Dreaming will help you to commit to your goals.
For more on visualizing your goal, click here.
6. Make it a part of your lifestyle.
If you are going to change your life by pursuing this new goal, it needs to become a part of your lifestyle.
If you want to lose 20 pounds, eating healthy and exercising regularly needs to be your new lifestyle.
And if you want to deepen your relationship with your spouse, spending regular time together needs to be a part of your lifestyle.
Fad diets and quick fixes don’t work. For any major goal to stick, you must commit the rest of your life to it.
Or the change will only be temporary.
You need to change the way you do things from here on out, every day. For the rest of your life.
It is best to start small, with reachable mini-goals. Once you make those little changes in your day-to-day routine, you can take another step. And another. Until, eventually, a year from now, your day – your lifestyle – is exactly how you envisioned it.
Make your goal a part of your daily lifestyle and you will find yourself committed to achieving it.
For help with setting mini-goals, click here.
7. Find and use the right tools.
Commitment is hard. It requires work. And to do any job right, we need the right tools.
If you want to exercise three days a week, you will need the clothing, the shoes, a water bottle, something to track your workouts with, some good music, possibly a gym membership, etc.
If you want to get out of debt, you will need a plan, possibly a scissor (to cut up credit cards with 😉 ), paper, pencils, calculator, maybe an advisor, an app to help you track spending, and etc.
Using the right tools to get the job done will make it easier for you to stay committed to your goals because the tools will help you to overcome any obstacles.
What tools do you need to invest in? If there is an obstacle you know you will have, and a tool can overcome it, get the tool! It will be so worth it!
The right tools will help you to commit to your goals.
8. Find a buddy.
You need accountability. It is easier for our kids to make changes in their lives because we moms hold them accountable. They have to answer to us, their teachers and their coaches.
We have no one but ourselves. We are solely in charge of our own day to day routine, and if we want to skip that workout, we don’t have a coach breathing down our neck.
So it’s important to find an accountability buddy.
This is someone you can share your goal with. Someone who can either do the daily tasks with you or make sure that you are doing them.
This is someone who can go to the gym with you, run that marathon with you.
It is someone who you can call before you splurge on that new dress.
This is someone who cares enough to watch the kids for you so you can go out with your hubby.
Your accountability partner needs to be someone who believes in your goal – and in you – as much as you do.
Make yourself accountable and you will stay committed.
9. Do something every day towards your goal.
Even if it is small.
Take a step forward every day. Don’t let a day go by without doing something.
Even small forward progress is still progress.
Can’t make it to the gym today? Get down and do 20 sit ups. It’s still something.
Can’t go out with hubby tonight? Snuggle on the couch and talk about how your day went. It’s still connecting.
Doing something every day will help you to make your goal a part of your lifestyle.
Doing something every day will help you to commit to your goal.
10. Become comfortable with discomfort.
Committing to your goal is going to require a certain level of discomfort.
Comfortable would be slipping in to a pair of sweats, grabbing some potato chips and vegging with Netflix all night.
Uncomfortable would be hitting the gym at the end of the day.
To make changes in our lives, we have to make changes in our routines. This often requires us to do things we have not done in the past. This will take us out of our comfort zone and in to uncharted territory.
You may face physical discomfort, mental discomfort or emotional discomfort. Whatever it is, you have to be okay with it. If it scares you, you will give up. If you can work through it, you will be successful.
Getting comfortable with discomfort will help you commit to your goal.
11. Be obsessive.
In order to chase your goal, you need to become saturated in everything goal-related.
If you want to be a runner, you need to read everything about running that you can get your hands on. You need to follow athletes who run marathons, ultra-marathons, and etc. Make friends who like to run. Talk with other runners. Join runner’s clubs. Follow runners on Twitter. Listen to running podcasts.
You need to soak up all you can about running. Let it motivate you and inspire.
Whatever your goal is, you need to become obsessive about it. You need to think about it all day long. Learn as much as you can about it. Follow anyone else who does this goal well, and learn from them. You need to befriend people who also find this goal important and feed off of them.
Saturate your life with as much as you can related to your goal.
Become obsessive and you will stay committed.