The Power of Commitment!

I’m going through a very busy period and it’s exciting to be juggling so many balls at once. It takes calmness to deal with many deadlines effectively and this is something I have been doing over the past couple of weeks.

Reframing

The next few weeks are shaping up to be the same so my Mental Resilience techniques are coming in handy at this time. One of the techniques I use is the positive inner voice where I re-frame from negative to positive as quickly as possible. When I am in a negative state I feel less energetic, less confident, more stressed and less able to deal with challenges as they come along

So it makes sense for me to be in a positive state as much as possible because not only will I get more done but I will feel better as well. As I spend more time in a positive state I tend to draw in more positives and the day seems to just get better and better. Your inner voice is a very powerful voice and the choices you make are often dictated by your inner voice.

Without any coaching our natural inner voice is generally negative – if you think about the kind of news stories which sell newspapers it is clear that we are interested in negative news. So the majority of our inner voice dialogue is negative and we may not even be aware that we have an inner voice. As you read this you are talking to yourself faster than you can read! Can you hear it now?

I deal with this in more detail in my upcoming book on Mental Resilience which is being launched at Nottingham Waterstones on Saturday 24^th October at 5pm. Let me know if you if you are available to join me to celebrate this milestone in my career by responding to this blog. I’ve had a great response already so thank you if you have already said yes. I will be mentioning this in every blog until the launch just to make sure that all the new people joining this blog each week get the opportunity to join me at the launch and receive a personal message from me at the signing. If you can’t make the launch let me know if you want a signed copy of the book.

Commitment

Commitment is one of the 5 Key Pillars of Mental Resilience and all high achievers have this quality. I used this when I received a career ending injury after I joined the Sunderland basketball team as a professional in 1979. I had a choice to go back to my previous job or stay and give it a go. I gave it a go and I played on for two years until the age of 27 playing all over Europe and the last game I played as a professional was winning the Play-off Final at Empire Pool Wembley in front of 10,000 people and live BBC Television.

Because I never gave up and stuck to the commitment I made I now have a very exciting career in Key Note speaking, Training and Coaching which I plan to enjoy until at least 80 years of age. I am 61, have just got married and I’m building a business with a 19 year plan – how exciting is that. I love married life with Julie and the future is looking positive.

Mental Resilience book

I am writing the book and all the chapters, intro, contents etc need to be with my book coach by the end of July. I had a wakeup call a couple of weeks ago realising that I have a lot of writing ahead of me with what looks like not enough time to achieve the deadline. I have the majority of days in July already booked out and it looked challenging. I have just checked what I have written to date and I was genuinely surprised that I have written 10 chapters totalling 25,000 words.

The total words I am aiming at are around 40,000 so I am on the way. The reason for this success is that I made a Commitment to my Mentor Stuart to send him at least 2,500 words every fortnight otherwise I would pay a fine to an agreed organisation which would  effectively be money down the drain. The fine started at £1,000 and is currently £3,250.

Because of this commitment and fine I have not once failed to deliver the 2,500 words on time even if it meant working late on Sunday to complete the task. This brings me to the power of Commitment. If you really want to achieve something in your life and are finding it hard to complete, get accountable with someone and put money on it. It was a bit of fun and I could have got out of this at the beginning but deep down I knew this sort of accountability would help me write the chapters. I can honestly say that I would only have two or three chapters written if I hadn’t agreed to the commitment with Stuart.

Action for this week

Think of something in your world that you are finding hard to achieve and speak to someone about it. Agree some targets between you and set it in motion. Some sort of fine is good and it doesn’t have to be financial it could be cutting their grass, washing their car etc. If it’s important to you and you commit to it you will increase the chances of success tenfold.

I’m away at a conference this weekend so I’m sending this blog early.

Enjoy a lovely weekend

Warm regards

John