How To Stay Committed To Reaching Your Goals

Let’s admit it, we all have that one goal we’ve been trying to set yet failed to achieve. Think about countless New Year’s resolution attempts, broken piggy banks, a planned vacation that remains a plan. 

 

So how exactly do we go about having a goal and then actually achieve it? 

The key to success is an overly used word, yet only followed by a few – “commitment”. Yes, the word does not only apply to relationships. It also applies to everything else in life that one wishes to achieve. It could be with regard to your first million dollars, your weight-loss program, your love life, or simply beating your early-morning alarm.

 

Commitment is the key. The only problem is that not everyone stays committed. The word itself is associated with fear, distraction, procrastination, and whatnots. You are in luck though, because below are a set of tricks you can carry up your sleeve should you plan to tackle your goals head-on.

 

Set a Clear and Definite Goal     

 

Another cliché, but this actually is a herculean task for most of us. You must set a realistic goal first, one that you think is worth your efforts if you intend to achieve a result. 

 

It’s not enough that you know what you want to achieve. You also should have a detailed plan before you make that first step. As soon as the path has been carved, it will only be a matter of time (and willpower) before you reach the destination. 

 

Focus

 

We all fall victim to pitfalls and unexpected turns. In fact, a lot of people would stop after the first fall or wrong turn. When challenges come up and emotions cloud your judgment, you need to focus on what your real purpose is and go on with your journey.

 

Keep Moving

 

This is the reason why goals are planned ahead in detail, so you will not have to analyze (or overanalyze) when you are already midway through your journey. Sacrifices are expected and you will fall a few times. Just get up and keep moving until you reach your destination. Stopping in your tracks, giving up, and turning back are no longer options at this point.

 

Enjoy

 

Take it from Mary Poppins, “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”. Don’t think of your goal as a task, but a game.

 

After all, it’s in the journey that we learn the most lessons - not the destination.

 

Learn To Set Boundaries And Start Saying No

We all need to put boundaries between ourselves and other people because we need a certain amount of space in order to think clearly and act properly. 

 

If you don’t put up boundaries, people will abuse you and your kindness. You might even be forced to do things that go against your will and your beliefs simply because you didn’t have boundaries in place. When this happens, you’ll lose your self-respect and your self-esteem will come crashing down.

 

Boundaries are important

 

Boundaries are hugely important when building your self-discipline. It protects you and it helps dictate how you want to be treated. It keeps you real and honest with yourself. 

 

It will help you exude confidence whenever you tell someone “No”. When you have boundaries, you only have to say “no” once because more often than not, the person doing the asking will believe you the first time you say it.

 

You may not believe it but rejecting people is part of life. No matter what we do, we can’t escape getting rejected by other people and you also will do your fair share of rejecting others too. 

 

If you’ve always acquiesced to doing tasks you don’t particularly enjoy, but you’re too afraid of rejecting the person doing the asking, then you need to start practicing. Otherwise, it can get to an unhealthy point where you continue doing things that are counterproductive to goals you’ve set for yourself. 

 

If you’d like to achieve your dreams and your goals within a specific time frame, then you’d need to start saying “no” to requests and tasks that do not align with your values and your goals and instead waste your time. 

 

Saying “no” the right way

 

If you’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, don’t. Because you can’t control people’s emotions. You can, however, make sure you deliver your rejection in a humane manner. You can try explaining why you’re saying no to make them understand your situation. 

 

Also, try using a gentle tone when you deliver the bad news especially if other people are within hearing distance. Rejecting and embarrassing people at the same time is a very rude thing to do so avoid delivering your rejection in such manner.

 

Setting boundaries and learning to say “no” are important milestones for your self-discipline. If you really find it hard to say “no”, just keep in mind that the more you say “no” to others, the more you say “yes” to your own success.

 

Resisting Temptations Make You Stronger

There’s no getting around temptations. Whichever way you look, you’ll see temptations all around you. And they become even more noticeable when you’ve set out to accomplish something, such as a long-term goal. 

 

When you initially start working towards your new goals, you’ll be so motivated and you’ll have so much adrenaline pumping through your veins that you seem immune to temptations. Nothing can take your attention away from what you’re trying to build. 

 

In the face of temptation

 

As time goes by, however, your excitement will start waning off, you won’t be as motivated as before and you’ll start noticing more and more temptations coming your way. 

 

Without self-discipline, you’ll immediately fall victim to these temptations. You’ll find it so hard to say “no” and so much easier to just say “yes”. 

 

If you’ve got an important presentation to give in less than 12 hours, and your friends are literally dragging you out the front door to go watch your favorite band at the arena, and you can’t say “no”, then you’ve got a problem. 

 

Or if you’d rather finish watching your favorite TV series instead of working on your presentation when you know for a fact which activity is more important, then you need serious help. 

 

The more you give in to procrastination and these distractions, the more you veer off the track you’ve set for yourself. 

 

Turning your back on temptations

 

It’s a different story if you have a healthy stash of self-control hidden somewhere on your being. You’ll recognize temptation for what it is and you’ll do your best to fight it for as long as you can. 

 

You’ll say “no” because you know how to and because you know that if you give in, you’re just putting a roadblock to your success. 

 

Your friends will understand your reasons for rejecting them because they recognize the boundaries you have in place. They might even respect you because who can refuse to watch their favorite band in action, right? 

 

Your determination, your self-control and your self-discipline will be transparent and they’ll believe you mean it when you tell them no. 

 

Resisting temptations make you stronger because the more you say no, the more your resolve to continue your journey strengthens. And with it, you also develop your self-esteem and your self-discipline, too. 

 

Rewarding Self-Discipline and Delayed Gratification

Setting up milestones for reaching your goals is important if you want to succeed. Equally important is setting up a reward system that allows you to enjoy and celebrate each milestone you’ve fulfilled. 

 

But what kind of reward should you give yourself? Should you go out and buy the latest $1,000 iPhone? Or would you settle for self-praise and a pat on the back for a job well done? 

 

The right reward for your hard work

 

Choosing the right reward is important if you don’t want all your hard work to go to waste. If you’ve worked hard, and succeeded, in losing 10 pounds over 2 months, then you don’t want to reward yourself by going to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. 

 

In fact, your self-discipline will dictate you to stay away from places that will encourage you to eat more than what’s good and healthy for you. 

 

Instead, you can reward yourself by buying a slice of chocolate cake just to get that sugar craving out of the way or you can choose to buy exercise equipment that will help you lose even more weight.

 

Achieve more with delayed gratification

 

When you’ve achieved a certain milestone, you might want to consider adopting a delayed gratification system. Instead of immediately rewarding yourself, try extending your reward to the next milestone. This is called delayed gratification.

 

For example, if you’re trying to lose weight and you’ve set every pound lost as a milestone, then you might want to consider making it 2 pounds instead. This means that when you’ve lost the first pound, you’ll be pushing yourself to lose the second pound quickly so you can finally get your reward (and no, you still shouldn’t reward yourself with an outing at your favorite buffet restaurant). 

 

Delaying gratification is a great exercise to push yourself to do even more. Your self-control and self-discipline will come into play and allow you to focus on completing more tasks so you can finally reward yourself. You just need to egg yourself on, encourage yourself to put one foot in front of the other because your destination is right around the corner. 

 

Lastly, it’s important to point that when practicing delayed gratification, you must have a ‘punishment’ in place as well. So, this means if you don’t achieve the milestone you’ve set for yourself, then you don’t get any reward. It’s really that simple. However, if you’re disciplined and committed, then you’ll do everything in your power to achieve your milestones and get your reward.

 

The Essence Of Adopting a Morning Ritual Habit

If you hate waking up early, then you need to read this article. According to research, creating good habits and sticking to a morning routine plays a huge role in your success. If you’re a night owl, unfortunately, this means you will have to find ways to adapt and change your lifestyle. 

 

Creating a morning routine and turning it into a habit may sound difficult at first. But if you keep at it every day for at least a month, you will start seeing noticeable differences in how you approach your entire day. A morning routine will help you feel more stable and you’ll be so much more in control of your day. 

 

It’s peaceful in the morning 

 

Early mornings don’t have as much distraction as other times of the day. Your family and your neighbors will still be in bed (unless they’ve also adopted this habit), there’ll be less noise on the streets, and your personal space will seem so much bigger. 

 

With less distraction, you’ll be able to think clearly and you’ll have time to exercise, meditate, pray, update your journal, and plan your entire day. 

A morning routine will help you feel more in control of your life and you won’t feel as disorganized as before simply because you will have time to think your day through and organize your activities. 

 

Simply put, your morning routine will set the tone for your day.

 

Get work done early

 

Mornings are best for getting your most difficult tasks done. Getting these tasks out of the way lets you enjoy relatively stress-free afternoons and you’ll be much happier because you can get more things done in the day. 

 

Your productivity levels will increase and you can even start working in advance on tasks that don’t need to be done until later.

 

When you get things done earlier and faster in the day, you can reward yourself for a job well done. Just be careful when rewarding yourself though as some rewards may actually be detrimental to your goals. 

 

For instance, if someone asks you to go partying on a weekday, you may want to tell them “No”. You may be tempted but think first if it’s going to somehow cause you to sleep in late and thus wake up late the following day. If this is the case, then simply decline. 

 

No amount of partying can replace what you can accomplish by sticking to, and religiously following, your morning routine habit!

 

Why Mental Strength Is Important For Self-Discipline

Mental strength significantly affects your self-discipline. In fact, there's a strong correlation between having a high level of self-discipline and being mentally strong.

 

Some studies even show that self-discipline is an essential attribute of people who earn more money since discipline is an underlying factor in achieving personal goals. Simply put, people who earn more often have high levels of self-discipline and the mental toughness to finish whatever they started and see it through to the end. 

 

If you find it difficult to discipline yourself, you might want to look first at developing mental strength. 

 

Mental strength lets you say no to temptations and excuses

 

If you don't have mental toughness, you'll find it easy to give in to temptations and distractions. You'll find it hard to meet your deadlines and your goals simply because you don't have the mental strength to reject temptations. You'll also make a habit out of making excuses for why you're missing deadlines. 

 

If you're mentally tough, then you won't have a problem saying "no" to anything that will distract you from reaching your goals. You'll also stop making excuses and instead do your best to tackle your situation head-on.

 

Mental strength lets you take good care of your body

 

If you are mentally strong, you know the value of taking good care of your body. You will not abuse it with alcohol and drugs. Neither will you allow yourself to be under too much stress. You will do everything in your power to make sure you remain in good health because without good health you won’t be able to work towards your goals. 

 

Mental strength lets you stay committed to your goal

 

In today’s fast-paced world, we can have our choice of anything we want. You can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it. With that being said, if you don’t have mental strength, you will not be able to commit to any goal you’ll set for yourself. You will not be able to give your all because you’ll soon lose interest and you’ll soon start chasing another goal. If you’re mentally strong, you will plan out your steps and processes so you can reach your goal successfully. You won’t be like a white flag in the air flapping every which way the wind blows. Instead, your mental strength and your self-discipline will anchor you firmly to your goals.

Why Do Most Americans Fear Self-Discipline?

America is one of the most successful civilizations in history. That is not an understatement. Whether we're talking about material well-being, life expectancy and the general ability of any kind of government or society to provide for its people, America is at the top.

 

It is no slacker when it comes to cultural contributions as well as economic innovations. We're not even talking about technology here. That's how dynamic America has historically been.

 

But despite this rosy, shallow surface appearance, there are certain troubling trends that may undercut and, eventually, undermine and sabotage America's success. I am, of course, talking about the self-discipline crisis.

 

You have to remember that for the longest time, the biggest contributing factor to anybody's success in the United States is one’s ability to work hard. I'm not just talking about digging a ditch or doing any kind of manual labor. I'm talking about something bigger than that.

 

Believe it or not, even if you're working at an office and you haven't lifted a shovel in your life, you can still work hard. You work hard with your mind. In fact, if you think about it, this is harder than physical work. 

 

With physical work, there's no thinking involved. You just basically press a button, you dig a ditch, you work the levers of the machine that's assigned to you and you're good to go. You just repeat that several times over the course of 8 hours.

 

Well, if your job involves any kind of decision making, analysis or cross referencing, it can be hard because you have to make difficult decisions. These decisions are not inconsequential. They can translate to profit or loss.

 

I don't know about you, but I have yet to discover a private company that doesn't exist for profit. The only exceptions to this that I'm aware of are the government and non-profit organizations. But other than that, market-based companies, particularly private ones, need to make a profit.

 

This is why people are under a lot of stress and it has always been the American ethic to work hard. Whether you work with your muscles or with your brain, you have to work hard. Fair enough. 

 

But the problem is the way society has evolved to this point is that it undermines this core pillar of hard work. I'm talking about the self-discipline problem. 

 

If you live in a society where pizza is expected to be delivered in 15 minutes or it's free, you're going to have a problem. If you live in a society where after you click on some stuff on Amazon, you expect it to appear on your porch steps over night or, at the very latest, 2 days from now, you're going to have a problem with self-discipline.

 

Make no mistake. The greatest idol in America today is the idol of convenience. Everything is all about getting stuff right here, right now. We've completely forgotten about the virtue of delayed gratification. 

 

Make no mistake. Delayed gratification or the ability to work hard at something that seems like a chore and such a hassle today and then the next day and the day after that in the hopes of getting a big reward in the future is what built America.

 

This is the mindset of people. They have a long-term view. They're willing to make the necessary sacrifices now so as to enjoy a much better tomorrow.

 

Well, unfortunately, the culture has changed dramatically because we have placed such a heavy emphasis on convenience. It is no surprise that most Americans fear, if not outright hate, self-discipline. “Why can't I have my cake now? Why can't I eat the candy now? Why do I have to wait?”

 

Well, here's the problem. Anything that's worthwhile in life requires discipline, sacrifice and long-term focus. There is a serious disconnect between the cultural values of our society today and the values that we need to preserve the best things about our society.

 

Be part of the new wave of Americans who are developing sustainable self-discipline. Unfortunately, given the way our society is going, common sense is not all that common.