Take the matter of bacon and eggs. The chicken makes a contribution. The pig makes a commitment.
-John Mack Carter

What qualifies as a commitment and a committed person? As the above quote implies, commitment has something to do with betting your life, something far more than making a contribution, although a contribution may well be a part of a commitment. Commitment is one of those funny ideas that almost everyone thinks they understand and behave accordingly.

If this is the case, why don’t we do often not achieve our goals and or don’t do the things we have “committed to do” Perhaps we mix up commitment with “good intentions” 

An old boss of mine always used a phrase “Well Done is better than Well Said” and that has always stuck with me.  As I look at the really successful people in life, be it in sport, business or any other discipline, I find that there are three main components of commitment- 

1. A public statement of intention, that is, speaking with or writing to pertinent other people of specifically what you are “signed up” for and fully intend to do in action;

2. Explicitly indicate a specific time and date to begin taking the intended action and also a specific time and date to complete the intended actions, and to periodically communicate progress and, if necessary, to shift times and dates given logistics and vagaries of life (i.e., being timely); and

3. Do the intended, signed up for actions as promised to completion.

The three components of a commitment are amazingly simple and functional in navigating your way through life. Words and people lie all the time; stated intentions, a time and date and actions combined don’t. Anyone who honours commitments is going to be demand.   

So, as you set your plans for business in 2021, how committed are you to the goals you have set, who have you told about them, what is your plan and timeline to achieve them and who is going to keep you accountable to doing what you said you are going to do.