When I was a young girl, there was a TV show called Fame that aired in the 80’s. It was about the experiences of young people studying at a school of fine arts. What was so memorable to me was a speech by Phylicia Rashad that occurred in the opening sequence of each episode. It went something like this, “You’ve got big dreams? You want fame? Well fame costs and right here is where you start paying – with sweat.”

Everyone has a dream, a wish, or a goal for their life, but I’ve often wondered why some people live their dreams and others spend their lives wishing. Philosophers have asked that question for ages. For me the difference is commitment.

When you are committed to your goals there really is nothing that can stop you. If you’re focused, have the right attitude, and you’re motivated and enthusiastic to do the work, you can achieve whatever you set your mind to.

Anthony Robbins says that the difference between being interested in something and being committed, is that if you’re interested, you’ll do what’s convenient. If you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes. If you’re interested you’ll believe your stories and excuses and you’ll continue to be a victim of your circumstances. If you’re committed, you’ll upgrade your knowledge, upgrade your skills, you’ll put in the time and you’ll be in it every single day.

Being committed means you let go of all of the reasons why you can’t and you keep your focus squarely on the prize. For me, commitment looks something like this:

Set your goals: Determine what it is that you want.

Create the map: Figure out the steps you need to get from where you are now to where you want to be.
Create a ritual or routine: Make a deal with yourself that you are going to commit to those steps for a given period of time. For instance, I will go to the gym 5 days a week for the next month. The bonus to this is that if you have kept your commitment for a given period of time, you will start to see results and the more you see results the more inspired you’ll be to continue.

Find your motivation: This is the big one for me. What inspires or motivates you? Too often, if we’re just doing something for ourselves we might not have the juice we need to go the distance. What I do is I print out pictures of all of the people that have doubted me and I stick them up on my fridge. They are the people that want to see me fail. They rejoice in my suffering and they don’t want good things for me and it’s my job to prove them wrong and show them that they will never defeat me. This is the chip on my shoulder, the extra juice I need to keep me focused, to bring out my inner warrior and battle when I don’t feel like battling.

Visualize and keep seeing the big picture: Use the law of attraction every day and put yourself in the feeling place of already being where you want to be. Match the vibration. If you want to be a CEO step into the skin of a CEO and be that , walk like a CEO, dress like a CEO, think like a CEO, act like a CEO. Practice visualization before you wake up and before you go to bed. Its just as important as hitting the gym every day.

Be accountable: Find a way to make it difficult if not impossible for you not to achieve your goals. If there are things you can do with a friend, use that be competitive and to keep each other accountable. Make short term goals within your big picture and announce that I am going to achieve X in 60 days and celebrate those small victories.

Be Consistent: Can you take a day off? Sure but don’t allow one day to turn into a week or a month off. It’s often easier to stay on target rather than give yourself permission to take a day off. The more you do something, the more habitual it becomes, the more habitual it becomes the faster it becomes part of our lifestyle.

A change in our everyday routine is difficult. To go from being a couch potato to a fitness buff isn’t easy, but what you want to do is to make going to the gym daily, a part of your everyday routine and make a day sitting on the couch, the change to your routine. Take the first step. Set your goals, figure out how to get there, motivate yourself and start paying in sweat. Make the commitment to yourself. You deserve success, now go get it.

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