To achieve your goal and make your dreams come true, you need to commit. Make your commitment big. Make it to yourself and to others. Write it down and say it out loud.
Writing your goal down makes it real. Writing your action plan for reaching the goal helps make it stick.
Once it’s written, display it to yourself. Tape it to your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, or your bedroom door. Write it on a post-it and stick it on your computer. Make it the background to your smart phone.
The constant reminder reinforces your dedication to your goal. It works on your subconscious, helping you to find new ideas.
It makes it impossible for you to put your goal out of your mind. And it communicates the goal to others, too.
Saying your goal out loud is another way to communicate your goals to others. Bringing others into your confidence about your goal is great for accountability. Your trusted friends support you as well as discipline you.
Your friends can give you advice, introduce you to people who can help, and offer a hand when you are stuck. And they can make you answer to them if you are straying from your plan to achieve your goal.
Can you imagine someone who is too shy to state their goal out loud? Think of someone who is too timid to say that they want a better job, or to write a book, or to run a marathon. How could that person ever be brave enough to make the changes needed to reach any of those goals?
It’s easy to see that someone like that won’t make much progress. That person’s idea of how his life could be different will probably remain an unfulfilled wish. He will never be able to reach his goals.
Yet a person who tells her friends that she wants a new job may hear about a job from a friend. A person who tells his friends that he wants to write a book may be invited into a writing group that will help him in the process. And a person who tells her friends that she wants to run a marathon will find a group of fans shouting her name as she crosses the finish line.
Saying your goal out loud makes you vulnerable to the input of your friends. So if you are not working your plan, they may call you out. But it also makes you the object of their support and that can help you practically and emotionally.
To reach your goal, you need to make a big commitment. Do it big and bold. Write it down and say it out loud.
