How To Stay Committed To Your Goals (A Proven System)
Shannon Waller
I was recently sitting down with one of our team members, Nicole, and she said something that really resonated with me. She said she needed to be “energetically committed” before she takes action on a goal.
So I dove into it a bit with her, and what I found was that this idea of being energetically committed is actually incredibly useful for anyone who struggles with staying committed to their goals. If you’ve ever failed at something and don’t know why, it’s probably because you weren’t energetically committed. And on the flip side, when you easily achieve a goal, it’s probably because you were energetically committed to it!
This gave me an idea. If you could figure out whether you’re energetically committed to a goal, then you’d basically have a foolproof method that would all but ensure that you stay committed to your goals.
And I’m happy to say that I think I’ve cracked it.
Ultimately, there are three clear indicators that will tell you whether you’re truly committed to a goal. I’d like to share these with you, and I think what you’ll find is that these indicators will not only show you how to stay committed to your goals, but also help you determine whether your current goals are worth keeping.
I’ll preface this by saying this is not my own idea or anything particularly new—in fact, I first learned about these three indicators during my Kolbe training. But it wasn’t until I heard Nicole talk about being energetically committed that I really started to see how these indicators could be helpful for learning how to stay committed to your goals.
If you pay attention to these three indicators and focus on goals you’re aligned with, you’ll never fail!
1. Your heart.
If you want to stay committed to your goals, you have to actually want to achieve them. You have to want to do the work involved to get to that end result, and that’s where your heart comes in.
If you don’t want to do something, you’re not going to do it. That’s it! The first indicator you need to pay attention to is your heart. Is your heart really in it or not? Let’s be honest, if you set a lofty goal for yourself that you know you should complete but you don’t want to do the work, it’s unlikely you’re going to achieve that goal.
This sounds obvious, but everyone has made this mistake—and I think it’s especially important for entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, you have a level of freedom that most people only dream of, so why focus your time on goals you don’t enjoy or don’t want to do?
Look at your goals and listen to what your heart is telling you. Is your heart aligned with your goals? If not, you may want to rethink them.
2. Your capabilities.
If you don’t have the capabilities to accomplish your goals, it’s going to be pretty hard to stay committed to them, right? You’ve probably experienced this one as well—maybe you took on a goal but didn’t know how to achieve it, or you wanted to apply for a job but didn’t have the experience required.
When you take on a new goal, ask yourself: “Do I have the right knowledge, capabilities, and experience to accomplish this?” Be honest with yourself and don’t get discouraged if you don’t currently know how to accomplish the goal. Instead of focusing on how to achieve that goal, shift your mindset and think about how to acquire the knowledge, capabilities, or resources you need to get yourself ready.
I know that entrepreneurs often want to set lofty goals for themselves that are outside of their comfort zone. That’s great, but going too far outside of your current capabilities can be discouraging. There’s a happy medium here—if you want to stay committed to your goals, stick to things that are within your capabilities. And if you don’t personally have the capabilities required to achieve your goals, make sure you’ve built a team around you with the capabilities you’re missing. If you have team members with the capabilities, then you have the capabilities.
3. Your instincts.
The last indicator is the hardest to figure out, but it just may be the most important. Do you have the right instincts and personality to stay committed to this goal? We all have our different strengths, personalities, and ways of working. If one of your goals doesn’t fit with them, you’ll never stay committed to it.
I once took on a project to create a mailing list. It was a simple project that I wanted to do and was perfectly capable of completing, but it involved organizing information in a very particular way. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a meticulously organized person. My brain just doesn’t operate that way!
So I ended up putting off the project for over a month, and in the end, I gave up on it entirely. If you want to learn how to stay committed to your goals, you first need to learn about your own instincts, your personality, and how you like to work. Profiles like Kolbe can be helpful here—they’ll show you some things you didn’t know about yourself and reinforce what you already knew.
Once you get clear on this, you’ll be able to quickly identify which goals or projects are aligned with your instincts. The goals you’re aligned with will be easy to complete, and you can avoid the goals you’re not aligned with or adjust them to make a better fit.
Combining all three.
Want to learn how to stay committed to your goals? It’s simple: Pay attention to all three of these indicators! Focus only on goals that align with your heart, capabilities, and instincts. When you have all three, you’ll always succeed.
I’d bet that if you look back on goals that you’ve failed to achieve in the past, one of these factors was missing. Maybe you knew you had the capabilities and the right instincts, but you weren’t interested in the goal itself. Or maybe you were interested and had the right instincts, but you didn’t have the right experience.
And there’s one final factor that I’d like to leave you with. These indicators will help you find goals that you care about, know about, and are willing to take action on. But you also need to consider who you want to help. As an entrepreneur, who do you want to serve? Who do you want to impact with your goals? As Dan would say, “Who do you want to be a hero to?”
If you can learn how to identify these three indicators, pay attention to them, and home in on exactly who you want to be a hero to, you’ll never have to worry about staying committed to your goals. It will just come naturally, and you’ll enjoy the entire process.
Not sure who you want to be a hero to? Download your free copy of Dan’s ebook, which will help you identify the key audience you want to create value for.
