10 Powerful Steps How to Fully Commit to Goals That Terrify You

Let’s be honest, setting goals is easy, anyone can do it. The difficult and challenging part is in the execution. To be specific, to commit and stick 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.

Most people fail not because of lack of desire, but because of lack of commitment.

Vince Lombardi

Meanwhile, the unsuccessful choose to do what is convenient and comfortable. They choose to give up or watch TV or play games rather than muster all their energy and act on their goals.

So, ask yourself this question:

Are Your Totally Committed To Your Goals?

Study the success stories of extraordinary people like Steve Jobs, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc, and you will discover that these people are ordinary people, but with extreme commitment to their goals.

If you are just interested to achieve your goals, you will never do the difficult. But if you are 100% committed to your goals, you will do whatever it takes to achieve them.

Like how Arnold Schwarzenegger went through all the challenges to become one of the world’s top bodybuilder, and how his commitment transformed his acting career to become a famous Hollywood actor.

Read: Arnold Schwarzenegger and His 6 Rules of Success

Thus, no matter what you want to achieve in your life, you need to have the commitment to do it. Without commitment, nothing is going to happen.

Of course, it’s easy to say that you’re committed when you’re full of energy and are motivated. The real test comes when you’re feeling lazy, feeling no motivation, and when you’re tired.

Luckily, your level of commitment works like a muscle. Meaning to say, you can develop it and become more committed to your goals.

And this is exactly what you’re going to learn in this article. Here are 10 powerful steps on how to fully commit to goals that terrify you…

1. Keep Making Progress

Yes, just make progress. You must understand that momentum and commitment will come when you are in action.

The key is to NOT let yourself sit and do nothing. You don’t want to fall into the trap of over-thinking and get nothing done. You want to make progress, even if it is just a small little step, do it.

Hence, focus on taking baby steps that you can accomplish right now. Focus on creating small victories.

• If you feel that you don’t have the motivation to do 50 push-ups, commit to doing just 5 or 10.
• If you find that you don’t have the energy to write a 1,000 words article, commit to writing just the first paragraph or the first 100 words.
• If you are tired to run 10KM, just commit to run 1KM or walk 500m.

Break down your goals into a smaller scale so that they become easier for you to execute. You want to lower your resistance to act so that you will do the work.

When things become easy to do, you don’t need so much willpower to execute.

So, don’t look at the big goals, instead, choose to focus on getting the small steps done. That’s how you increase your commitment to getting things done.

Read: Why Start Small? The 5 Important Benefits of Starting Small

2. Hold Yourself Accountable

I know you have heard this for a gazillion times, but it is one of the most important principles when it comes to keeping your commitment.

Think about it, you will never skip meetings, right? But why do you skip taking action on your goals?

The reason is simple – you are accountable for your meetings. People, your colleagues, your managers, your partners, and your boss are waiting for you at the meeting. But when it comes to your goals, no one is there to hold you accountable.

And this is why you need to create an accountability system so that you will never procrastinate on doing it.

This is especially true if you are trying to achieve personal goals that you keep to yourself. Nobody knows your plan, and so it becomes easier for you to slack off and procrastinate.

From today on, don’t keep your goals and plans to just yourself. Share them with someone who will support you.

Let others know about your goals and plans. Tell them what you’re going to achieve and how you’re progressing.

Trust me, when you do so, your commitment will increase – a lot!

Read: 7 Easy Ways How to Hold Yourself Accountable for Your Goals

3. Develop Success Habits

You can’t just rely on your willpower and motivation. As you know, motivation comes and goes. Sometimes you’re feeling pumped up, and sometimes you’re not.

Therefore, don’t rely on your willpower, instead, choose to develop success habits that will get you going.

You see, I’ve been publishing long-form articles since the day I started this blog. Every Tuesday, I publish a new article to this blog and I have been doing so for a couple of years.

How do I maintain my consistency? Well, I have developed the routine for writing and publishing. So, I don’t really need the motivation to write articles. I will just do it because it is my habit.

I don’t even question myself if I should write or can I delay the work. I just do it.

Like how you brush your teeth every morning. First, you never miss brushing your teeth each morning because it is your ingrained habit. Next, you brush your teeth the same way every day.

Do you question yourself whether you should brush your teeth each morning? No, you don’t. You just do it. Automatically.

This is the power of habits.

Therefore, develop success habits for your goals. When something becomes a habit, you will automatically commit to doing it, without question.

Read: 31 Daily Good Habits: The List that Improves the Quality of Your Life

4. Change Your Mindset

Another important factor that can help you boost your commitment is your mindset. Extraordinary people who have a strong commitment to their goals don’t even question if they should do the work, they just do.

And this is due to their mindset and belief. First, they don’t look at work as work. They just do it without thinking much about it.

To the extraordinary, work is just a part of their daily life. And they must get the work done regardless of whether they like it or not. This is why extraordinary people work on their goals even when they don’t feel like doing it.

Secondly, extraordinary people are exposed to possibilities rather than impossibilities. They expand their vision and build positive mindsets through reading and immersing themselves in the industry.

Imagine if you’re at your 20’s and you’ve already exposed yourself with seminars, workshops, and you read books about success, building businesses, becoming an entrepreneur, and more, do you think you will do better in life right now?

People who are fully committed to achieving their goals see their goals as a possibility. They believe that they can achieve what they want, and hence, they take the necessary actions.

On the contrary, unsuccessful people don’t believe in themselves and they don’t see their goals as possible. They don’t believe they can achieve their goals.

As a result, the unsuccessful don’t take many actions. They give up and make excuses whenever things become tough.

So, change your mindset from now on. Expose yourself to possibilities and expand your mindset to believe that you can do it.

Read: Success Mindset: 13 Thinking You Should Adopt to Succeed in Life

5. Surround Yourself With Successful People

Another way you can increase your commitment and believe your goals are possible is through surrounding yourself with other successful people.

You see, if every one of your family members and friends wakes up at 6 AM, there is a high chance that you will be influenced and wake up at 6 AM as well.

Birds of the same feather flock together. If you want to be successful and become someone who lives your dreams, surround yourself with people who have done it.

It works just like the power of accountability. Imagine you join a group of professional basketball players. When everyone around you trains, you will want to train too. You don’t want to miss the boat.

If everyone around you gets up at 6 AM and they start their training at 7 AM, it makes you feel like doing so too. This is the power of mixing with the right people.

Human beings are group animals. We tend to live in groups and we want to feel that we belong. This is why we tend to become the people who we spend the most time with.

When you surround yourself with successful entrepreneurs, you will want to start your own business too.

When you surround yourself with people who are fit and people who exercise in the gym on a regular basis, you will want to have a gym membership too.

At the same time, if you surround yourself with people who play games, people who waste time on social media, and people who smoke, guess what, you will become part of them too.

Hence, choose to surround yourself with the right people. Mix with people who are highly committed to their goals and you will develop the commitment too.

Read: How to Surround Yourself with Positive People

6. Stay Hungry For Your Goals

If you want to be truly committed to your goals, you must develop an insatiable hunger for them.

One of the biggest differences between successful people and ordinary people is their hunger for their goals. Extraordinary people are unrelenting in the pursuit of their objectives.

And you have to be the same. You must always be hungry for your goals. Learn to develop an inner resolve that consistently feeds you with successful images, thoughts and beliefs about your goals.

Instead of feeding yourself with thoughts and inner dialogues of why your goals are impossible or difficult, feed yourself with positive messages.

When you find your inner conviction and when you truly resolve to achieve your goals, you will never allow any other things to distract you or take you away from your goals.

So how do you know if you have developed the hunger for your goals? When you are absolutely committed, problems, failures, and roadblocks become mere speed bumps rather than stop signs.

When you are committed, things are not going to stop you. You understand that everything that you do and every result you get, be it positive or negative, are just progress.

This is when you will feel the commitment and do whatever it takes even when things are going against you.

Read: 5 Powerful Methods How to Boost Your Desire for Success

7. Remember Your Purpose

So, you want to be committed? Just remember your purpose.

I like how Tony Robbins puts it, “People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.”

Guess what, Tony Robbins is absolutely right. When something is interesting and exciting, you will do it.

Why do you prefer to play games and watch TV rather than working out in the gym? Why do you choose to do the convenient instead of doing the hard things?

The answer is simple – you don’t have an exciting purpose that drives you.

If your goals are NOT exciting, you’re NOT going to do whatever it takes to achieve them.

Therefore, make your goals as exciting as possible. Give yourself emotional reasons why you must achieve them.

When your purpose behind your goals is strong, you will build a higher commitment for the game.

Read: Why Clarity of Purpose is Important to Success and How to Get It

8. Leave Yourself With No Other Options

Sometimes, in order to truly commit to your goals, you must up the game.

For instance, when you know that you have no other options but to work on your goals, you will do it. When you have choices and the consequences of backing out are minimal, you will back out when things become difficult.

Hence, leave yourself with no other options but to press forward and achieve your goals.

Like how Captain Hernán Cortés ordered his men to burn the ships in order to conquer the land.

The lesson is that retreat is easy when you have options. And so you don’t want to give yourself too many options to choose.

Sometimes, you must burn the ships and leave yourself no other ways but progress forward.

It may sound scary at times, but it is necessary to build up your commitment to your goals.

9. Set Up Your Environment to Win

I’m a full-time blogger and I can choose to work from the comfort of my home or in the office. And guess what, when I’m in the office, I can focus better and tend to be able to work faster.

Hence, I choose to work in the office when I need to be more productive and get a lot of things done. Most of the articles on this blog are written when I’m in the office. I’m able to focus better.

While at home, there are just way too many distractions. And nobody is there to ‘monitor’ my progress when I’m at home.

So, create an environment where you can win. If you find it difficult to exercise at home, go to the gym. When you change to your sports attire and hit the gym, usually, you will be more committed to progress. You will exercise harder and sweat more.

As I mentioned above, don’t just rely on your willpower and motivation. Our environment plays an important role in determining our success too.

When you’re in the right environment, acting on your goals can be easy. But when you’re not in the right environment, taking action can seem like a difficult thing to do.

Read: 10 Tips How to Change Your Environment for Greater Motivation

10. Reward Good Behavior

I love the examples given by Ramit Sethi on his blog:

Imagine two people: Jimmy and Lucy.

Both set a goal to save $500 / month over the next six months. However, Lucy tells herself that she is going to treat herself to a $500 purchase of a pair of shoes if she saves that much. Meanwhile, Jimmy doesn’t set a reward for himself.

Who do you think is going to be most likely to achieve their goal? Lucy, of course. She has the incentive of a commitment device: The $500 pair of shoes. Jimmy, on the other hand, must rely on willpower alone. As such, he’s much less likely to achieve his goals.

Do you get it now? Give yourself a good reward for your good behaviors. Do you want to develop success habits? Then you reinforce the habit through repetition. But let’s face it, repetition is boring. So, what you need is a reward.

Every time you achieve a milestone, a small target, make progress or accomplish your daily goals, give yourself a good reward.

You want to promote good behaviors so that you will look forward to taking more actions. This is how you increase your level of commitment to your goals.

Read: How to Reward Yourself for Your Hard Work and Effort

Conclusion

No matter what you want to achieve in life, whether it is your career or business or relationship, nothing will work unless you are truly committed to it.

Think about it, a half-committed relationship will not work. The same goes for a half-committed business.

If you want to achieve great success in life, you must be 100% committed to achieving what you set out to achieve. You can’t approach it with a half-hearted attempt.

Use the 10 steps above to increase your commitment. And let me know which method works the best for you. Share your ideas in the comment section below.