“Whatever it takes.” Those are words of commitment. Words said by a person with the drive to reach a goal by doing what needs to be done until it is achieved. Commitment ethic is a deeply held belief that, once you have agreed to do something, you must do it until it is finished or completed. A strong commitment ethic leads to success. Whether you are a student, an employee or a stay at home mom—you’ve probably set personal goals for yourself. These goals can be reached only when a high enough level of commitment has been made.
10 Steps to Commitment Ethic
1. Accept your current situation. Denying that anything is wrong or trying to cover up a problem will not help. You must accept the situation before anything can happen to make things better.
2. Talk to others who have succeeded. You cannot do it alone. It’s always best to talk to others who have gone down the same road you have. Learn from their experiences.
3. Stay healthy. Without your health, you have nothing. Exercise, rest, relax, eat well—all of these things need to be done in order to keep a commitment.
4. Face reality. Take a good, long look at the situation before you commit. It is always best to approach any commitment with your eyes open.
5. Accept your responsibility. Before you make a commitment, you have to fully understand who is responsible for reaching a goal. If it is not your duty or responsibility, pass it on to the one who is responsible.
6. Control your self-talk. Self-talk will either help you or prevent you from getting your commitment. Learn to talk yourself into rather than out of a goal.
7. Get some help. Research has shown over and over that people who have help from others tend to keep their commitments and reach their goals more often than those who go it alone.
8. Set your goals and setup a tracking process. You know how to set and reach goals. Now take that knowledge and make it happen.
9. Learn to handle setbacks. Along the way, after you have made your commitment, you will encounter many problems and challenges. Commitments may even need to be changed based on things that have changed since the beginning of the commitment.
10.Persist. Persist. Persist. There is no other word to put here. Remember, persistence beats resistance every time.
Without commitment ethic, what’s to keep us from giving up at the first sign of resistance? Commitment ethic gives us the push we need to power through when all hope seems lost. It’s an inner drive to succeed, even when everything else is seeing to it that we fail.
