Recommit Every Day | Leadership Management International

In my previous series of articles on the Keys To Your Future, I have outlined the first four keys to your success: Focus, Unique, Teamwork, and Urgency. Focus is what keeps you concentrated on your goal; Unique describes the unique gift or talents that we all posses for achieving our goals; Teamwork is the vital ingredient for an organization’s success; and Urgency is the fuel that causes you to act to achieve your goal. The fifth key to your success is to Recommit every day to your goals.

In working with our representatives around the world in over eighty different countries, I have had the opportunity to observe both very successful people as well as people who haven’t realized their goals. If I had to pinpoint one reason why some people don’t achieve the level of success that they aspire to it is because of a lack of commitment.

Every great success involves dedication, singleness of purpose, and an overpowering desire to accomplish the goals that you set out. This is what commitment is. There are a number of keys to making commitment work for you in your life.

Crystallize your thinking as to exactly what you want to achieve in life. It is impossible to be committed unless you know exactly what you are committing to. Consequently, the first step in developing total commitment is having a clear mission, purpose, and goal for your life. If you haven’t decided what you want to achieve in life, it is fruitless to try to develop commitment. Commitment is a result or by-product of intense desire. Desire is only developed by a clear focus on exactly what you want to achieve.

Once you have crystallized your thinking and know exactly what goal you want to accomplish, the next step is to set up a specific daily action plan to realize your goal. You must know very clearly what you need to do each day to move you in the direction of your goal and ultimately reach your goal.

There are many people who set great goals, who know what they want to achieve, who aspire to fabulous levels of accomplishments, and yet, never move off of the starting line. This occurs because, when it comes to actually doing something, they don’t have a clear plan and don’t know what they need to do today to realize their goals in the future.

The third step to developing total commitment is to make the conscious decision that you will take the daily actions necessary to realize your goal. This is the essence of commitment. It is making the dedicated, concentrated, and determined decision that you will do whatever you need to do each day to reach your goals. This dedication, this focus, this total commitment is the common denominator of success.

Albert E. N. Gray, who wrote The Common Denominator of Success said, “The single thing that determines success and failure is that successful people develop the habit of doing the things that unsuccessful people won’t do.” In other words, successful people are willing to do the daily actions necessary to realize their goal. They have the commitment necessary to do what unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do.

Why do some people have this commitment and others don’t? This is the fifth key to your future: to recommit to your goals every day. Many of us take time to set our goals and even develop a plan, but once we do this, we often just set this aside. Whenever you set your goals and plans aside, you gradually lose your commitment to them. You must refocus and recommit to your goals every day.

Every day when you wake up you must reaffirm your goal to yourself. You must visualize achieving your goal in the future. You must see yourself in possession of your goal. You must see yourself enjoying the benefits of attaining that level of success. You must believe in your heart and know in your mind that you will reach your goal. This is only attained by recommitting yourself every day to your goal. Don’t let yourself slide or miss even one day.

The world famous concert pianist of the early twentieth century Ignace Paderewski once told an interviewer, “If I fail to practice for one day, I hear the difference. If I fail to practice for three days, my friends can tell the difference. If I fail to practice for one week, the whole world knows it.” Paderewski knew the importance and value of daily commitment to practice and action steps to achieve his goals.

If you fail to recommit to your goals for even one day, you will know the difference. Decide what you want in life. Plan how you will achieve it. Then, every day recommit to your goal. Every day, rededicate yourself to your purpose. Every day, re-concentrate on who and what you want to be. Every day, refocus yourself on what you need to do to achieve success. Recommit every day. It is an absolutely vital key to your future.

By Randy Slechta, CEO / President of Leadership Management International, Inc. a global leadership and organizational development company.