Be a Promise-Maker to Yourself

Irrevocable commitments that offer no loopholes, no bail-out provisions, and no parachute clauses will extract incredible productivity and performance from yourself.

-- Robert Schuller, Founder: Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, CA

Do you know that what you commit yourself to doing and being changes who and what you are? By committing to a greater vision, you become a greater person.

I suppose it should be no surprise that those who already have achieved a taste of success in any arena are much more likely not only to set goals, but to have a sense of total commitment to those goals because they have greater confidence. And the most successful are those who are “on fire” with their goals. They have reached the point where goals have become elevated to “promises”.

What’s the difference between a goal and a promise? A few of my coaching clients have said to me that making goals feels like something that someone else is pushing you to do. In that case, the goals stay at “arms-length” – distant, cold and guilt-causing. Obviously, the wrong approach.

The right approach? Knowing why you’re pursuing that particular aim. The “why do it” is more important for continuous motivation than any other element. What will reaching this goal enable you to do, to be, to have, and to feel? When you get absolutely clear about where you want your promise to yourself to take you, then you, too, will feel “on fire” with your vision. You will commit to doing what it takes to make it real – and it is suddenly transformed from a “goal” dragging you – into a promise that propels you.

Stop creating goals if they only make you feel guilty. Ask yourself, instead, what you will promise yourself to do in your life next.