Moving From Being Interested to Being Committed

If you are like most people, you are interested in a lot of different things, but that does not necessarily mean you are committed to them. Maybe you want to consider a new career, starting a business, starting a new hobby, finding romance, improving your finances, organizing our home, or taking your health and fitness to the next level. When you are interested in something, you spend time thinking about it. This may generate feelings of excitement, curiosity, and maybe even a little fear or overwhelm.

Dreaming is one of my favorite things to do. For me, it creates feelings of excitement and energizes me. I can dream all day long, however, dreaming alone won’t get me anywhere. This is where commitment comes in. While being interested in something or dreaming about something requires thinking, commitment requires action. If you are truly committed to something, you will continue to pursue it, even when it gets hard, boring, frustrating, or inconvenient. If you are committed you are willing to push harder, further, and to try new things that are challenging or unfamiliar.

When pursuing something new, you don’t need to have it all figured out right away. Of course, it is good to have an idea of where you are headed, however, trying to figure out all the “how” can result in overthinking, procrastination, and ongoing interest without any action. Commitment means having a plan of action and continuing to take the next best step. This is different than being “busy”. You can be busy all day, every day and not be making progress towards your goal. This is because you may be choosing to do the things that feel easiest and most familiar instead of doing the things that will move you towards your goal. Staying comfortable and doing what is familiar is normal human behavior. Being aware that you may have a tendency to do this and consciously deciding to take action on the right things, even if they are not the easiest things, is what will get you to where you want to go.

One sure way to get you to question your commitment to something is to compare yourself to someone else. There will always be someone who is further along than you are. Instead of observing where someone else is as a way to beat yourself up and create negative self-talk, use where someone else is for inspiration of what is possible. Learn what you can from them, use them as inspiration, and then reaffirm your commitment to yourself to achieve what you are working towards.

When you are ready to take action on a dream or interest you have, use the following tips:

• Commit to what dream / interest you will pursue. You likely can’t pursue all your dreams or interests…at least not all at the same time. Be specific and decide what you are committed to pursuing.

• Get very clear about why you are willing to commit to this goal. Your “why” for wanting to commit to this is what will help pull you forward when discomfort and doubt start to creep in.

• Map out a plan. Even if you don’t have all of the “how” worked out yet, map out what you do know will help you move forward. What you will likely find is that once you are in action, you will gain more clarity about what steps you need to take to achieve your goal.

• Anticipate problems and obstacles. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it will all be smooth sailing. Try to anticipate what bumps you may experience as you pursue your goal and come up with a plan for how you will manage them. You likely won’t be able to anticipate them all, but if you can anticipate some you will thank yourself for it when they show up.

• Focus on progress made. While you will be looking at your roadmap and looking to see what your next best action is, don’t forget to look at what you have already accomplished. Taking time each week to reflect on progress made will energize you, build confidence, and reduce the chance that you will lose your commitment to your goal.

• Reassess, regroup, and reenergize. On a regular basis (at least once per month but more often if possible), reassess your commitment, your plan, and your progress. Decide if you need to make any adjustments and regroup. Finally, reenergize by reminding yourself why this goal is important to you and why you were willing to move from being interested and dreaming about something to committing to it.

• Appreciate the process. While you are committed to the outcome you want to achieve, you should also be committed to the process and to the growth that will likely happen as you pursue your goal. This will help keep you going on the days, weeks, and months when you are feeling like you are not making as much progress as you would like.

If you are like me, you will always have lots of interests, dreams, and things you want to pursue “someday”. Of those, there will be a small number you are willing to commit to and once you do, the more you manage your mindset, take the right actions, and remember why your goal is important to you, the more successful you will be. You’ve got this.

If you are interested in learning more about how to manage negative thinking patterns, you can grab my guide to 5 Common Thought Distortions HERE. I provide information about how your brain works, why it works this way, and specific strategies you can implement so that you manage your brain rather than having it manage you. You can grab this guide at no cost HERE.