If you're somebody that would say you are not good at sticking with your commitments, this is going to preach to you.
You may have some voices in the back of your head saying, "Oh boy. The New Year's coming, I am dreading it. In the past, I haven't stuck with my commitments that I said I was going to stick with."
If that's you, I want to encourage you with really the 3 components that makes a commitment stick.
It's likely that you've never learned these before and that's why you haven't been successful with keeping your commitments. So instead of beating yourself up for not being perfect with your past commitments, give yourself some grace and focus on what you can control- your present decisions.
I'm going to start with the last one first because I believe this one is the one that trips up the most people.
The first key component of a commitment that sticks is that you decide in advance that you will stick with it long term, even if you "fall off the wagon".
People who end up sticking with their commitments have this attitude: "If and when I take a couple steps backwards, I.E. I miss a week of working out; I spend that money even though I said I was going to save it; I eat garbage 3 days in a row; etc.
Even if I take a couple steps back, I will stick with this commitment long-term because I'm in it for the long haul, not just to see how many days I can last or how quickly I can "get this done".
If you're like me, then this sometimes will trip you up. But here's the empowering truth: People who succeed long-term with their commitments, they stay committed long after the feeling that they had when they said they were committed, long after that feeling had left them. That's my encouragement to you.
Second thing, people who make commitments that stick, they make an investment that actually means something.
It might be of your time. I'll give you an example. Sundays from one o'clock to, for some people, 10:00 PM are all about football. Well, if you want to make your commitment to your fitness stick, for example, I want you to commit to working out from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM every Sunday. What? Yeah, because people who stick with their commitments, they decide to make sacrifices and they make commitments that mean something. That's part of the secret sauce.
Then the last piece, the last key component of a commitment that sticks is that people who make commitments that last, they make their commitments public. They tell a friend, they tell their coworkers, they tell their children, and then they write it down and they keep putting it in front of themselves so that it's public.
So those are the three things that you've got to do. Which one of those three haven't you done in the past? Or maybe it's multiple. Maybe it's all of them. Maybe you didn't have any of those components, and that's why your commitments haven't stuck. Listen, you can do this this year. You've got this. The people that are successful with their goals, there's nothing special about them. They just do these three things.
Number one, commit to the long process. Commit to the journey. Even if you fall off, don't stay down. Number two, make your commitment mean something. Sacrifice your time or sacrifice that money. Instead of doing the $10 a month gym membership that has no accountability and no coaching, commit to the $300, $400 a month personal training program. Yeah, you're going to have to give something up. But if you want your commitment to stick and you want to become the kind of person that achieves your commitments, you're going to have to make your commitments mean something. Then lastly, go public right now. Think about what that commitment is for you. Post it on social media or share it with me, right? Send it over to me. That's public. But take a step towards making it public and you'll watch your goals come to fruition. I'm rooting for you in 2024. We believe in you here at PFP. We'll talk soon.
