How to stay committed to your goals?
Can't you stay committed to your goals and are you getting tired of this? Do you want to devour each goal on the first try and better your life this way? Then it's your lucky day! implementing the strategies in this article will do so!
Introduction
Let’s be honest, setting goals is easy, anyone can do it. The difficult and challenging part is in the execution. To be specific, committing and sticking to your goals, that’s the most challenging of all. In fact, most people fail to live their dream life because they don’t stick to their goals and plans!
Life just seems to always get in the way, isn’t it? Regardless of whether it is the people, things, or situations, things just seem to happen and get in our way when we want to take action and stick to our goals.
One thing you have to understand: extraordinary people who have accomplished amazing success in life are normal people who face challenges in their everyday life too!
People who are living their dream life, are ordinary people like you and me. But one thing that they did differently is that they are absolutely committed to their goals. They don’t just set goals and write them down, they stick to their plans, they work on their goals, they take action even when they don’t feel like it.
Before giving a strategy that you can follow to commit to your goals, let's talk about the different levels of commitment.
Understanding the levels of commitment
There are five levels of commitment. these levels are a way to assess how committed you are to any process.
Level 1: Lack of commitment
Strong resistance characterizes this level and statements like: I don't really want to do anything different. I like ____(smoking, drinking, pleasing others, etc.)
Level 2: Outcome without effort
This level is full of wish, hope, and fantasy. ''I want to lose weight and get in great shape''. ''I want to be able to walk up to an attractive stranger and just casually start talking to them''. ''I want to start my own business, get a promotion, or make X amount of money''. We do want all these things, but we don't want to make the effort! We don't want to take action consistently over time. We don't want to do any work at all for the outcome. We just want it now, quickly and easily! This level is characterized by a lack of any significant action. Instead, we have numerous reasons as to why we can't get what we want, because either the outside world is preventing us (excuses) or we are not capable to make it happen (stories)
Level 3: Trying
This level of commitment indicates we're actually willing to do something. We're willing to try things, take action, and begin to take steps in the world to create the outcomes we want. However, trying is weak. It means we will take action until we hit something difficult or challenging and then we'll quit. This level is characterized by phrases like, ''ill try'' ''maybe'' and ''probably'. We might say ''OK, this week I'll try to start conversations with some people at the networking event'' or ''I'll probably approach some women at the party. maybe, if I feel like it'' Underneath this language is the mentality: I'll do just enough to get by.
I see this level of commitment all the time in people I know. If they're uncomfortable speaking up in meetings, these people think: OK I'll work on confidently speaking up, but just enough to get a little better at it so I am not completely silent. That's good enough. Or, if someone wants to work out they think: What's the minimum I have to work out per week to get into OK shape?
This bare-minimum-to-get-by standard is the calling card of the dabbler and never leads to mastery. it also rarely leads to great outcomes, consistent results, wealth, love, or happiness. By rarely, I mean never!
Level 4: Do my best
This level is where things really start to heat up. This is when we start to take consistent action, face our challenges head-on, and step up in life. This is where we start to notice progress and results, which feels good. This might even seem like the top level of commitment: however, it still leaves the door open for giving up. We may put our all into something for weeks or even months. We put in the effort, energy, time, money, and our motivation and intention. We do our best. however, we still aren't getting the results we want. When this happens, many people will say, ''Well, I did my best. I guess I'm just not meant to get X or achieve Y''. This of course is false, but it does make a plausible story. We now can quit, stop putting in the effort, and go back towards the safety of our comfort zone. We may even feel good about how hard we tried, and how we gave it our all. However, little do we know that we are actually worse off than before!
Now, back in the safety of the center of our comfort zone, we also have this poisonous belief: I did my best and I couldn't get the result. that means I never will. That's why you need to step up to level five!
Level 5: Whatever it takes!
This level of commitment leads to results. Period. This is my level of commitment and is the only level in which you stop doing activities that bring no value, and start looking for solutions on how to commit to your set goals. It will be the level of commitment which leads to succeeding in anything you put your mind to!
The reason this level is so powerful is that it cuts off all exit routes. There is no escape. If I don't know something, Ill need to learn it. if I'm scared to so something, I'll need to face it and overcome it. If I believe I can't, then I must. This level is so powerful because it shows us repeatedly that our minds predictions about what is possible for us are completely arbitrary and usually wrong. We stop believing in the predictions of our safety police and start getting into more and more action, faster and faster. Moreover, that's when we achieve incredible breakthroughs in short periods.
DO WHATEVER IT TAKES
So, when it comes to shedding the unhelpful elements of not committing to your goals, ask yourself: How committed are you? What is your level of commitment to take consistent action to break free and live as your most powerful version?
Really, take a moment to slow down, breath and check in with yourself. Don't just instantly say LEVEL FIVE! and keep reading. See at what level of commitment you are. Are you going to ''try this out a little and see if it works right away?'' (LEVEL 3). Are you secretly hoping that you'll find the magic bullet in a different article I will write in the future? which will instantly remove all your discomfort and fear forever? (LEVEL 2) or are you willing to step up, face fear and discomfort, do new things, and experiment with being in this world in several different ways until you truly discover who you really are? Are you willing to do whatever it takes!
In any area of your life, dabbling will get you very little. in case you aren't familiar with the term, dabbling is when you try a little then quit when it gets difficult or uncomfortable. We all dabble in something. I've dabbled at keeping my room clean, sticking to not playing video games and eating healthy. Unfortunately the path of mastery only occurs when you are disciplined. The same goes for shedding old conditioning and stepping into your powerful, loving and successful self. Watching motivation videos on YouTube will get you virtually nothing. Maybe some excitement, hope or insight. But nothing will truly change, or profoundly transform, unless YOU decide you are going to do this. To commit to this. to master it.
Take a moment right now and ask yourself, am I going to dabble or decide? Am I going to read this article, feeling the excitement of promise and the spark of possibility that a new article brings? or am I going to dive in fully, go deep and use this article to transform how I show up in the world? Am I going to read it, study it, underline it, do WHATEVER IT TAKES and keep returning to it until the job is done?!
Take a moment now to ask yourself these questions. The answers you come up with determine the course of the rest of your life!
Matter of fact, take a few minutes to write out a list of all the ways that not committing to you goals is holding you back in your life. What is it costing you? What has it caused you to miss? What pain does it force you to live in on a daily basis? Then consider the flip side. Write down what it would be like to be fully committed to your goals. What would your life be like if you weren't dabbling around? What if you could live free and fully commit to your life? TRY IT OUT!