“Most people who fail in their dream fail
not from lack of ability but from lack of commitment.”
~ Zig Ziglar
Think how often many of us change jobs, how often athletes changes teams? The dictionary defines Commitment as “A willingness to give your time and energy to something that you believe in,” while Doctor Heidi Reeder expands the definition to “Commitment is the foundation of Great Accomplishments.
Could the lack of employee/employer commitment obstruct the desire to improve; prevent us from applying extra effort? We have all witnessed, maybe event participated, in blaming Coaches, Bosses, Teams and/or Companies for our lack of improvement. To prevent this from happening we need to ask the question, So whose at fault?
I think the answer is pretty clear, We Are!
- We decide when, and in what areas we want to improve
- We decide when and in what areas we want believe in
Therefore, we decide When, Where, and On-What we want to Apply Extra Effort. Being honest with ourselves we are in Control and Determine OUR Level of Commitment.
Unfortunately, as this chart of an earlier Gallup Poll indicates, most of us really don’t care. Whatever our excuse, the chart is very clear, 63% of us go through the motion in our job or the sport we play versus working hard. That means “63% of us are contented with mediocrity!”
Like it or not, Zig Ziglar is correct; we fail, not from lack of ability, but from Our OWN lack of commitment. It’s a choice that we make. Tony Robbins defines this decision as a mental conflict; a mental battle between “Pain versus Pleasure.” 63% of us mentally believe:
- The Pain of Getting Better [e.g., effort we need to put in] is TOO Much and Outweighs
- The Pleasure of Doing Nothing [e.g., doing the same way we did it yesterday]
Business and Baseball are very similar. In both we are judged individually while participating in a Team environment and Lou Piniella, explaining what it takes to make it in professional baseball, may have provided the best definition of Commitment;
“You have to learn how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
Until next Blog know this; “If you don’t change anything, then nothing changes!”
Al McCormick
