Commit to Someone Else for a Change

Have you committed to someone to make the change you really want to make?

If you look back at some of the greater things you have achieved in the past you will probably noticed that they were for one of two reasons.

1. You were so incredibly passionate about it so that you didn't need any encouragement in following through on a daily basis.
2. You somehow felt as though you had made a commitment to someone else to achieve your goal and would feel as though you were letting them down if you did not follow through every day and achieve it.

Being passionate about something is an amazing way to achieve a goal you want. Sometimes, however, you may find yourself passionate about a goal, but not so passionate about how you can get there.

This is an instance where it is great to make a commitment to someone else to follow through everyday.

Say for example you want to massively improve your fitness. In order to do so you will have to start doing some form of exercise on almost a daily basis. Now you may be incredibly passionate about transforming your fitness, but hate getting up early in the morning to go for runs.

The solution to this challenging situation is to make the commitment to someone to go on those runs everyday. For example, make the commitment to your family or partner so that you can have more energy when you are with them.

Making a commitment like this works, because deep down you know that going for a run everyday is good for you, but you just don't like the actual process of running.

Another way of looking at making a commitment is that it tips the balance of your pleasure and pain associations in your favour. Before making the commitment you associate more pain to going on a run than pleasure, so you would probably not follow through with the goal you set yourself. However, after making the commitment you associate more pain to not following through, because by not going you will be letting other people down.

One of the great things about making a commitment to someone is that the pressure gets you started on achieving your goals. After a few weeks or months of following through with your goals it starts to become second nature to do it and you no longer need the commitment. As you become more familiar with the process you will probably begin finding ways of enjoying it too.