Hello, I'm Michael Kithcart, creator of the Wynning Your Way framework and high performance coach to sales leaders. Welcome to the Champions of RISK Podcast, where we examine the many aspects of risk. So we can all face uncertainty with more courage, confidence, and humor together. What are you committed to? I mean, I want you to stop and think about this for a minute seriously. What in your life?

Do you feel like you are absolutely 100% committed to? could be people in your lives, relationships that you have?

Maybe it's your career, or the business that you own something on that professional cycle? Are you committed to learning and growing?

Or maybe you absolutely are committed to your health and wellness. And if you are, I absolutely applaud you, especially in this day and age.

Some people are committed to succeeding, achieving, that is like something that happens on a very consistent basis, there are things that we are all committed to that actually serve us, right.

So think about what in your life has your total devotion, your dedication, and that it actually helps you get to where you want to go, it makes your life more satisfying. Can you think of at least one thing? Good, because now let's get honest and talk about what you're committed to that's actually getting in your way.

Okay, maybe you, I'm sure this is not you, right?

Because you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you were in victim mode. But do you know somebody who is absolutely committed to staying stuck to being the victim? Or maybe committed to every time somebody asks them a question? It's, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know.

Sometimes I get in that, like, I don't know, I don't know, makes me crazy, it lasts about three to five minutes. And I can't stand it so much that I, it forces me to move on. But I have been known to be a little bit stubborn.

And acts of stubbornness actually, can be something that we are dedicated to. And it absolutely prevents us from, you know, having a full life experiencing something at a different level. I don't know if you've ever been known to be stubborn. But if so I have to call both of us out on this.

Because that is an act of committing to something that isn't really serving us. Then there's also like social media, okay, let's just call it out, is that really enhancing our lives in any way, shape, or form?

And yet, if it shows up in our daily practice, whether we think about it or not, that's something that we have actually become committed to? What about not paying attention to what you eat or drink on a consistent basis, that could fall in the category too.

My question is like, if you don't work out, even though that you know, it's healthy for you, and you consistently don't do that, does that mean that you're then committed to not working out? Oh, I posed that question to myself. And it was like a sock in the gut.

And, I changed it. It caused me to change my actions.

So now let's, you know, that was all fun and games, let's get a little bit more serious here. In, and direct the conversation.

If a stranger were to take a look at your weekly calendar, what would they say that you're committed to? Would the actions and the to do's that you have on your calendar represent what it is that you actually want to be committed to?

Or are your weeks filled up with things that you feel like you have to do or you should do? If your calendar isn't representative of what you would say that you are committed to in life? what's getting in the way?

If you're like most people, commitment gets associated with others, right, like clients, family, work peers, community, friends, for some, there's a really good balance between professional and personal commitments.

But there are others who feel more pulled to one side like, again, if you look at the calendar, it's overly saturated with all the say professional commitment, and that then leads an opportunity to insert more of the personal and fun commitments that actually make life more enjoyable, pretty consistently.

I would say that what often gets missed Is the dedication to self.

And what you need to be productive, energized, joyful in life, that often is not fully represented on the calendar or even just a snapshot of, you know, a day in the life or a week in the life of someone, some people go all in on being a certain way, because this is another way of being dedicated, like being right being a victim, like I mentioned, or, hey, in a good way to some people are absolutely committed to being joyful and positive in their life, then there are some who just refuse to commit.

Like the idea of being totally in, fully committed to something makes them run, which I just want to say, hate to break it to any of you that are feeling that way. That is a commitment in and of itself.

And I just, I mean, this is like the hard reality of all of those versions, like resistance actually takes more energy and time than doing an action consistently. So think about that for a second.

Resistance take takes up more of our time and our focus and our energy, than if we would just actually decide that we're going to do the actions that more than likely, we really want to be doing anyway, if we just decided to do that consistently, it would free us up to put our focus and our energy in a different direction.

So I love this quote by Andy Andrews. And I'll just tell you, I, like I have no idea who Andy Andrews is, but the the quote connects for me, and that is, When confronted with a challenge the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape.

Oh, I know that I've escaped several times in my life. What about you? I also know that when I am fully dedicated, there is nothing that will stop me. I will search for that solution. How about you? This is like an episode of examination, right?

So I'm going to share with you three areas of how commitment might be playing out in your life, and just listen along with me and ask yourself along the way, like where is commitment showing up for you?

So the first area is in actions. Because commitment comes in different forms, there are actions that you already have in place that are serving you, right.

So think about the things that you do that support you. Support the type of life that you want to have, the way that you want to feel, things that are good for your relationships, for your body. And even if you've just have a couple, that's fantastic, like you're doing great, I just want to like stop down and applaud you for a second.

Then I want to veer you over to identifying what are some actions that are sidetracking. You they take up some of your time there really like helping contributing to improving your life or your level of satisfaction in any way.

They're just, you know, you have to remind yourself Okay, stop. I'm gonna go back over here. Those are sidetracking actions.

And then let's get really honest and what actions are you committed to right now that are sabotaging you because without examining it, you might not even be fully aware but that chances are there are at least there's at least one action that you do on a consistent basis that just downright gets in your way of being the type of person that you want to be having the life that you want to have.

Being as successful or confident as you want to be. That is the one to root out and get rid of. So actions are one area.

Being and doing is another area. Because sometimes you can be committed to things that you don't even realize. I mentioned a few of these before but like, being committed to being right.

Do you always need to be, like have the last say in a conversation? Are you dedicated to just being busy? Like there's some level of satisfaction that you get from always saying, I'm busy? I'm busy I can't I busy I'm too busy. Oh my god, I'm so busy.

Or how about perfection? That is dedication, I have to say and many people suffer from it. Or just the outright hustle.

Are you committed to the hustle? How about being mad or joyful, or curious or serious? Those are consistent ways of being that we might not even realize we're doing. Or how about the ways that you are committed to doing things? Maybe you feel like things have to be done in a very certain way.

Are you committed to giving like you always, you're the person who always gives your time, your energy, your resources, but then is that blocking you from actually receiving? Or maybe you're the taker, always, always, always, it's okay to admit that, because once there's the level of awareness, then we can decide what needs to change. The third area to examine is where are you stuck?

Because being indecisive, ignoring what's going on around you, blocking out, just totally shutting down, that resistance to actually committing is a great area to like, really stop down and get real with yourself.

Because you're just shortchanging yourself. It's preventing you from actually having the life that you want. And maybe you just never thought about it this way before, like, oh, gee, I'm actually committed to being miserable.

My God, you put it that way, who wouldn't want to change that? So now that you maybe have some new awareness, or you're seeing the word commitment framed in a different light for you, I hope that you've actually joined me on this journey to actually think about where in your life is this showing up? And where is it helping you?

And where is it totally like getting in your way. Now let's talk about what actually gets us committed.

Okay, so what makes you move from just being interested in something or someone and then taking that big leap and becoming totally dedicated?

I want you to think about a time when you actually moved that needle, where you started slow and then accelerated.

Maybe over time, maybe it happened quickly to a point where you realize like, this is, this is part of who I am, this is, I am so committed, nothing will get in my way of actually making this happen or being this certain way. I'm going to give you an example.

Because this Okay, I will just say this happened many years ago.

But I was a pretty consistent runner. I ran in some five K's and some 10 K's and I was slow and steady.

Okay. But you could look at my calendar, and you would see that I was running, you know, consistently every week a couple of times, but I didn't really have any goal around it. It just made me feel good. It cleared my head.

And that's totally fine.

Okay. It never needs to be anything more than that. It was it was serving a purpose. But then I had this moment I was in Colorado, I was hiking a fourteener with my friend Paula and her father.

And her father shared this story because we had nothing but time climbing the hill, right the mountain, he shared this story about how he used to be a smoker, and he wanted to stop smoking. So he thought that his best way of stop smoking was to actually run a marathon, and he wondered if he could run a marathon. Yeah, I get this is extreme. But this is the fun part of the story.

He wanted to know if he could actually run a marathon and he decided if he walked the marathon route, which is 26.2 miles if somebody doesn't know that, and so one day being out of shape. Being a reformed smoker, he walked out of his door and walked 26.2 miles in one day, and he did it. And then that propelled him to run a marathon. And when I heard the story, I thought that is brilliant.

That is what I am going to do. So I got this idea, right?

It's not an original idea. It's Paula's dad's idea. But it sounded just crazy enough, just wacky enough, just fun enough that it challenged me. And so I enlisted two girlfriends- Actually, I tried to enlist a lot of people like who wants to walk the Twin Cities marathon route with me and like I had two takers.

And one Saturday afternoon, we walked it and we walked the 26.2 mile route. And then I joined a running group. And then I became very dedicated, right? Every week, I had to run a certain amount of miles so that I could be ready to run the Twin Cities marathon.

And I did and so if you look at, Yep, I was kind of like, you know, I was running a couple of times every single week to now I'm running I have a plan, I have to, you know, make sure that I can run 18 miles so that I can run 22 miles so that I can run 26.2 miles.

That was when I was in the committed state. So think about your marathon story, what is something that you absolutely committed to, because there's something in your life that you already have done that for. And when you have evidence and you remind yourself, that you can be dedicated to something that you can actually endure training or fatigue or setbacks, and still persevere and and get that outcome, that you know, that you can be committed in something else. So maybe there's something that you wanted to have in your life, you've wanted to get back on track, you wanted to try it, you you want that relationship, you want that new job, you want to exceed that sales goal, and you've just kind of been plodding along. You've been doing things around it every week, right?

But you haven't committed to the marathon route yet. What is that? And are you ready to start getting committed? If so, keep listening. Because there's so much more here, I want to share with you things, five things about what it is required of you to be committed. because this is about having total dedication to something or someone, could even be a cause. But here are like those five elements that need to be in place for you to have that total dedication. And the first one is the desired outcome, it can be an end goal, it can be a daily outcome, it could be a dedication to being happy, becoming healthy, get really clear and specific. The better you can get yourself, visualizing what you want that desired outcome to be, the better, the more likely it is that you will take the actions needed and required to actually make it a reality. The second thing is to be consistent.

Not a surprise, right?

Look, consistency has to be there, in order for anything to happen. You the action has to be demonstrated on a regular basis. You know, if you're really being honest to yourself, if there isn't some level of frequency, and the actions that you're taking to the outcome that you want, are you really committed to it? because I'm going to say you aren't, it doesn't have to be daily, you could be committed to something that the cadence is on a monthly basis. Think about if you are a volunteer, you sit on a board, you're probably pretty dedicated to, to that mission and to your participation in it right.

And you meet on a monthly or quarterly basis. So it doesn't have to be every single day. But there has to be some level of consistency, there has to be a cadence there to really know that you are committed to something. You also have to be adaptable.

That's the third one. Because along the way, things aren't gonna go as planned, you know that.

But so having the ability to pivot to seek out other solutions that are going to keep you on track or take you in a slightly different direction, but it is still serving that outcome that you want, that is going to serve you well. To be committed also is about being resilient, because things do get hard along the way. And what is it that's going to prevent you from quitting? You know, we can do a whole other side conversation about when it's time to quit something and when it's time to really persevere. But just think about, like your level of resilience, because that's really important.

And it is true, you can be committed to quitting something that that counts in here saying no committing to saying no to the things that you really don't want to be doing, I say I'm, I'm applauding you on that one, too.

Yeah, high fiveing you on that one. So it doesn't always have to be about doing something different or more. It can also be about doing less better in the spirit of committing to your dreams, to your goals to your relationships to your health, there's a likelihood that you're going to have to forfeit something because you can't do it all, can't do it all at once. It is about choice in that most likely means that something is going to need to be stopped, paused, eliminated delegated, so that you have the space that you need for your committed actions. Commitment is not about perfection. It's not a straight line. It bobs.

It weaves. But it is consistent action. commitment is the momentum that transforms ideas and dreams. In reality, it's essential in moving from where you are, to where you want to go. So are you ready to commit?

What is it that you know, deep down inside your soul that you want to commit to, you needed to commit to in order to get to where you want to go?

What are you going to start, amplify or stop, that's going to make an impact on what you want in your life?

I want to know, and I want to help you.

So for the first three people who email me what it is that they are committing to, at michael@mi haelwkithcart.com. And I will pu my email in the show notes, be ause I'm going to help you so idify what you're committed to by giving you a weekly ch ck-in call for the first 30 da s, because those first 30 days a e so important, right? So y ah, not kidding, three people re going to get me as their ccountability partner with a on on one weekly 15 minute co ching call to support you in yo r committed actions. So all yo have to do is email me, let me know what it is you're co mitted to. And the first th ee people are going to get my co ching support for 30 days. No , I'm releasing this on Au ust 4, you have until August 18 That's two weeks to respond to me. In the email, michael@micha lwkithcart.com again, it's goin to be in the show notes. Bu come on, it's so much easier to gain the momentum of the actio s that you need to have in y ur life in order to get to wh re you want to go when you have upport, right. And if you don't want me that's totally fine.

Get an accountability partner t at you know, is going to ask yo How's it going? How can I hel ? What needs to shift, you can d it, keep going- somebod that's going to champio you along the way. Maybe i 's your best friend, maybe i 's your partner, maybe it's, y u share this podcast episod with somebody and both of you decide that you're going to com it to something that's going o have a great impact on your l fe. And you decide to be your o n accountability partne s. I don't care how it happen . I just really want to encour ge you to take the action now. B cause that consistent action is going to help accele ate the thing that's kind of bee , you've been maybe waffl ng on, let's be honest, right You've been dabbling, and now i the time to really move it fo ward. I'm so excited to hear bout what you've committed to an the results. So even if you d n't want me as your coach, drop e an email. Come on, let's do it And if you do need that accoutability, and you're ready to li e, step it up a notch, email me soon and let's get started.