At the time of writing this article, I’m sick. I’ve had a fever of around 100 for the past few days, and it doesn’t seem to be getting much better. Even though I should probably be in bed, I gave my word to myself, and that’s something I’ll never break. I said, “Fred, you will write one article every day, no matter what. Do you understand?” “…” “Well?” “..fine. Yes, I will do that. I promise.” Fleeting sickness is no exception.

I made this promise to myself because I knew if I got sidetracked from my blogging goals then I’d never become a success. I’d never reach enough people to make a real difference. Having a purpose is great, but if you don’t have a plan on how you’re going to achieve that purpose, then it’s pretty much pointless.

Furthermore, the hard part of goal creation isn’t sticking to what you’ll say you’ll do – that’s easy. The difficulty comes in actually making a real plan in the first place. My favorite way to make sure I stick to a plan I made is to make a little promise to myself. Not sure what your plan should be, let alone how to make a promise to yourself? Read on..

Define a goal that means something to you

Ask yourself the following question: What is one thing that I don’t do right now, that if I did every day, would greatly improve my life? The first thing that comes to mind will be what we’re going to work on. Let’s say that exercise came to mind right away for you. There’s no good reason not to exercise each and every day. Even if you’re super busy, you can still fit it in somewhere, even though you might not think so at first.

Okay, so exercise is definitely important to you. You’ve been holding on to a bunch of extra pounds since the holidays, and you’re ready to let it all go. Once you know exactly what you’ll be working on, it’s time to be specific. Let’s create a plan that works with your schedule.

Come up with a real, tangible plan

This part depends entirely on your personal life. Let’s say you do your research and decide that exercising 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week works for you – but you don’t have that much time. Most people would scrap the plan entirely at this point. They’d make excuses and come up with rationalizations as to why they couldn’t better themselves. This is actually the main thing that separates all success from failure: willingness to take the first step.

You decide that instead of quitting, you’re going to make this work. You decide to park farther away and take the stairs. That’s 10 minutes of exercise per day right there. Now you only have 20 minutes to squeeze in some where.. hmm. You decide to get up 10 minutes earlier. You were sleeping too much anyway. Now, 10 minutes left. That’s easy. You can fit that in right after work. Now your plan will include the following:

- Use stairs, park at end of parking lot

- Wake up 10 minutes earlier for a quick jog

- Exercise 10 minutes after work with another light job

It may not seem like a lot, but it builds up. In fact, assuming everything stays the same and you commit to this plan and are of average weight, you’ll lose about 15 pounds in a year. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Big success comes from small, consistent changes.

Make a promise to yourself

Now it’s time to take the pledge. If I were to use the above example, my promise would go something like this: “I, Fred Tracy, promise to get 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week without fail, no matter what, and will go about it according to the plan I’ve created.” Write this promise out on a piece of paper and post it somewhere that you pass by every day. Tape it to a mirror and make it part of your morning ritual. Don’t just think to yourself, “hmm, good idea.” and leave this page. If you really want to change, you need to take action in the present. Do it right now and you’ll be more than satisfied with the results.

I used to come up with reasons not to write each and every day. Looking back, I realize it was nothing but self-sabotage. Even if I’m sick with the flu, I’m going to write. My mission is to help people through my website, and that isn’t going to happen if I don’t take action in the present! What’s your mission? How could making a promise to yourself keep you on track each and every day?