Further Your Lifestyle

EP. 195 - COMMIT to Success and Watch Your Life CHANGE Overnight! | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

Your Host: Chris Furlong Episode 195

#furtheryourlifestyle #podcast

| Further Your Lifestyle Podcast | EP 195

Watch here: https://youtu.be/JK-dGQPT4RI

In this episode of the Further Your Lifestyle podcast, host Chris dives deep into the importance of commitment over goals. Chris shares personal stories, including his journey from leaving a high-paying corporate job to starting the podcast, emphasizing that success is about taking consistent action rather than setting endless goals. This episode is a motivational guide to making 2025 your best year yet by focusing on the power of commitment, building habits, and celebrating small victories. Tune in to learn how to shift your mindset and achieve unparalleled success in any area of life.

00:00 Welcome to Further Your Lifestyle Podcast
00:36 The Power of Commitment Over Goals
02:03 Personal Story: Leaving the Corporate World
04:46 Why Goals Alone Aren't Enough
07:55 The Importance of Consistency
10:07 How to Commit and Win
12:50 Final Thoughts and Call to Action


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Speaker 1:

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the Further your Lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle, passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. And we are talking about if you can commit, you can win in this year and this year is 2025, but this applies to any year. And the one thing which I think some people are going to find this a little controversial, because on this podcast, we talk about it all the time. We talk about goals.

Speaker 1:

Now, I won't lie, goals are super important, but but yes, there is a but they are nothing without commitment. What if the secret to actually winning the new year or winning at anything, in winning at progress or success or just making yourself a better version of yourself, isn't about setting these endless goals? It isn't about setting I need to be this by that certain time. What about if it's just about committing? What if it's just about simply committing to action? Now, we've spoken about it, probably briefly before. Actually, we've probably done a whole episode on this. Now, this we've spoken about it probably briefly before. Actually, we've probably done a whole episode on this, but it's something that I think it needs to be reframed around goals, commitment, taking action, getting the work done and getting the results that you want to see Now. If this sounds like something that you want to see, if you want to see 2025, if you want to see this year, if you want to see the next 30 days your best time yet then this is the episode for you. And I want to start off with a bit of a personal story or, I guess, observation of my own around how commitment alone has led to a better success or a better result for myself. And it doesn't require perfect planning. It actually just requires you to start. It requires you to be willing to do this. I am going to do this to get me closer to where I want to be, and it's such a cliche thing that I say in terms of have you done something today that's going to get you closer to where you want to be? But I guarantee you, if you do do that, then you will make the massive, the massive action to where you want to be.

Speaker 1:

And the example of this is when I left the nine to five, when I, you know, quit from working in the corporate world. I left a $160,000 salary job, which is five years ago now, and I wanted to start this podcast right, and I was so scared of starting it because I had nothing behind me. I didn't really have anything, but you know my own experiences working for someone else. But I wanted to create a podcast that's going to encourage people to further their lifestyles, to help others achieve something that's great and to be a better version of themselves. But I didn't know how to do that and I remember I spoke to Rob Atkus.

Speaker 1:

He's a, he's an author, and it was on the app called Clubhouse and he was bringing people onto the stage, virtual stage, saying, you know, if people have questions, you know he wants to talk to them about how to get over fear. And my fear was starting this podcast and not, you know, not knowing what was going to happen. Is it going to be good enough and all those different things. Why do I feel that way? And I said what if I fail? What if you know people don't listen to it? Or what if I don't get the results? And he said what do you want? I said I just want to help other people further your lifestyle.

Speaker 1:

And he says, chris, if I don't start this podcast, if I don't start this right, and maybe I only had one person listen, two people listen or three people listen, then I'm doing them a disservice because I could change their life, and it's not about me changing their life, but it's around. If I've got something bubbling up in me that I think is worth sharing to one person, two people, three people, 10,000 people we've had over 10,000 downloads now then I should be willing to. You know, only do it for one person, and if I don't do it, then those people are missing out and I have, I have a service to provide, right, so I should do that. And if you do it and you stay consistent, it just gets easier. And this is a really interesting topic. And he was right. Like I started, he gave me, he put me into accountability and saying when are you starting? I gave him the date I started and you know we're. You know we're literally five episodes from hitting 200 episodes.

Speaker 1:

But that aside, I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about why goals aren't enough, and that's what we're going to be discussing today. I want to take you through it all and hopefully give you a better understanding, a better level of motivation and momentum to actually make this year or the next 30 days or whatever time period you want to put to it your best yet. So this is episode 195. It's a Further your Lifestyle podcast. Let's get into it. So why are goals alone not enough?

Speaker 1:

The problem with goals is and this happens on a most cliche basis, I mean, it's now an internet meme At the start of every year. You see these, you know reels of people saying you know, day one of January 2025 or whatever day one January, people walking into the gym, they're all ready, they're all hyped. And then it says day two and they're on the couch and they're you know, they're not doing anything, and it becomes a bit of a joke, right? But a lot of the time we set these goals, we set these ambitions or these ideas or these dreams that we're going to just make them happen because it's a new year, new me. Therefore, magically, we have all this ability to make something better of ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Now, look, I won't get you wrong. There is a level of motivation, there's a level of hype and a level of excitement that does rush through everyone, but people aren't able to attain that and retain that, and it's usually due for a lack of follow-through and because we've never done any of that consistency ever before, because if you haven't done it the year before, why are you going to do it anymore? What makes the difference now? Right, so there's a huge pitfall when relying on motivation or perfect conditions to make these things happen, but the reality is there is an advantage to just focusing on commitments rather than focusing on goals. Right, don't have a goal of I want to lose 20 kilos. Have a the focus of committing to. I want to be healthier and I want to lose weight, and by doing that, the commitment shifts your mindset and your focus from the outcome, which is the goal, to really just the process of daily action, and daily action is going to look different for everyone. So you've got to make sure you're not comparing to other people that are further along the race than you. But when you commit, you build habits, and when you build habits, you create momentum. And when you create momentum, you will develop resilience. And when you develop resilience, you will be able to succeed in committing on a more and more regular basis.

Speaker 1:

The power of commitment is clarity over perfection, right, that's how you can really tap into the power of commitment, because commitment doesn't I guess it doesn't mean having all the answers. It means actually just starting and figuring things out along the way being willing to show up daily, being willing to put in the reps, being willing to figure out how I'm going to be a little bit better today. Now, this can range across a whole bunch of different things. A good example for me was, you know, when I was committing myself to running my first ultra marathon. I'd never done an ultra marathon before. I didn't know how to do an ultra marathon. I knew how to do a marathon but I was committing to it, knowing that maybe I wasn't able to actually complete it. But I was committing to, you know, drive myself through the training and through the mental preparation to make sure that I was able to get it done right. And I didn't have to worry about if I would finish or not, because I knew that if I follow a plan, if I follow a committed progress plan, then I would get the results that I want to see. And I did. I've done two of them now, and that's how you can actually beat it right.

Speaker 1:

It's not about being perfection, like having perfection. It's about just having clarity over perfection and having a path forward. So the other thing is consistency will always beat motivation. The reason why is because if you know how to be consistent when times get tough and you don't know how to be motivated, then you're able to still be consistent. Now you can be motivated when times get tough if you are enjoying what you're doing and you have a better understanding of what you're trying to achieve. But the consistency will trump all of that, and what I mean by this is when you are committed.

Speaker 1:

You build, as I said before, resilience, but you build discipline. You build something that outlasts motivation, because it becomes second nature to you. It becomes a non-negotiable to you. It becomes something which is just like when you're brushing your teeth you don't have to think about it. Right? That's what you want. You want to be able to build momentum through a consistency of routine and being able to show up. Right? A good example of this is a daily 10-minute routine of you know, whether it's doing some push-ups, doing some yoga, doing some stretching or whatever it may be will enable you to have significant, significant progress over a year's time. Right, because 10 minutes a day over 365 days, that is a lot of minutes, right? And if you didn't do it the year before, you've literally just become a new version of yourself and 10 minutes, it's not a lot right, but we do tend to make these things hard for ourselves, so we also need to keep that in mind.

Speaker 1:

Now, the other thing I'll quickly mention is we need to remove the plan B, and what I mean by this is commitment is about. It's about burning the bridges of doubt and finally actually embracing the chosen path that we want right. So, if you're when you're fully committed to doing something, even setbacks are a part of that journey and they're not reasons to quit. Now, if you're not understanding all of this, basically, what I'm trying to say is just because you don't have a great day doesn't mean it's all over. Just because you're not seeing the results today of the outcome that you want, doesn't mean you're not making the great progress that you need. We want to stay committed, because staying committed means that you will get through the lows, but it also means you get to enjoy and experience the highs as well. You know, just because times get tough, it doesn't mean you quit. It means you soldier through, you stay committed and you build that resilience. That's the key here. You want to build the resilience. So how to commit and win?

Speaker 1:

Number one is you want to choose, ideally, one thing at this point in time. One thing you want to choose one thing, and it's really important to focus on the one thing at the start, because it means you're not overwhelming yourself, and it has to be one meaningful goal or habit, right? And what I mean by goal is you know what is the outcome that you're aiming for. But instead of spreading yourself across 10 goals of all these things that you want to achieve, let's commit to one major change. Once you get into a groove, you can start to add some more. You know what your one thing is.

Speaker 1:

You now want to set a non-negotiable, so identify is it going to be daily? Is it going to be weekly? What are the actions that will lead to this progress? An example of this could be every morning, I'll write 200 words, no matter what, and that's my non-negotiable. Maybe you want to learn how to write better? Maybe you want to be better at journaling? Maybe you want to do poems? Then you need to write more words. Write 200 words daily every morning. That's it, simple, right. Now there's a bit more to it. So you want to track your progress, right, it's not about tracking perfection, it's about tracking the progress you're making.

Speaker 1:

Commitment isn't about actually being perfect. Commitment is about showing up constantly and consistently and, you know, doing something that gives you a result. That result can then be tailored next time to be a little bit better, making the adjustments so that you can continuously learn to, you know, be a better version of yourself. So an example of this is just use a simple tracker on Excel or Google Sheets, or document it in a journal, just of your daily effort. It could be a dot pointer, it could be coloring code, I don't know, figure it out right. I mean, there's plenty of templates you can use, but track the progress in the most simplest way. Don't make it complicated. You want to make this stuff easy.

Speaker 1:

Number four and this is probably the most crucial and something that I've always struggled to do is celebrating the small wins. You want to recognize the progress that you make, to help you stay motivated, to help you reinforce that that commitment that you're doing is actually worth it and rewarding at the same time. You know I didn't run 10 kilometers today, but I showed up and did two kilometers and it's still a win. So that's the other thing you need to look at. Sometimes, maybe you don't hit the target or the expectation that you were expecting, because some days you're just going to be off, but you still showed up and you still got it done and you still made the progress. Just because you only did 2K of 10K, it's better than doing nothing. You'll be able to make that up right, and I'm not saying you should just use that as an excuse every time. But there are going to be days which suck Like. It's just a matter of fact, right. So those days, you've got to find the positives, you've got to find the small wins, but at the same time, you do need to celebrate the wins as you make.

Speaker 1:

What can you do from here? I think the main thing you need to focus on is look, yes, we are at a new year, it is the start of a year. But that aside, it isn't about starting strong at a new year. It's about actually just being committed. Whether it's you're starting you're listening to this in the middle of the year. It's about starting now and committing to what you want to achieve. What will you commit to for the next 30 days, for the next week, for the next year? What will you commit to? And it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be consistent. And the other thing I want to ask you and leave you with is what's one thing that you can commit to and I want you to leave me a comment below in the comment section of you know, what's one thing that you can commit to this year, in 2025? And what would your life look like if you focused not on actually achieving that goal, but actually just committing to the process? Because I guarantee you, you can probably reflect and know that you've tried to achieve goals over the last few years and you haven't hit them, but sometimes it's because we don't know what it takes to hit them.

Speaker 1:

If you want to do an ultra marathon or run your first marathon or run your first 10K, you can't do nothing for the first. You know you can't do nothing for the period of your training plan and expect to rock up and do the 10K. You might be able to do it, but you're going to hurt yourself. So there's going to be maybe a 10-week plan to build you to that 10-week goal of getting you from the couch to 5K, to then 5K to 10K, getting you comfortable, getting you consistent, getting you strong, getting you comfortable and getting you confident to be able to go do that, right, and it takes time and it wasn't about that. Okay, these are all the different things that I need to do, but it's more about no. I'm going to show up every day for the next 10 weeks. Every day I'm going to do something that's going to get me closer to it.

Speaker 1:

Now, some of those will have a plan that you can actually download and follow, but if it's more around you want to be better at, you want to make more money selling on eBay this year, or something like that then you just need to be consistent. Are you listing items that are going to sell every day? If day, if you're not listing items that aren't going to sell, then how do you expect to sell more? Right, and maybe you're listing only one item a day, that's great, there's nothing wrong with that, but are you listing something that is going to be worth selling again?

Speaker 1:

So there is some caveats that we need to put to it. You can't just show up and expect to do put in crappy work and get really great results. You do need to put in the best work possible, and it might be just for that small amount to get the best results possible. That's the nature of the beast. You know it's one plus one equals two. It's not. You know zero plus zero equals one. It doesn't work like that. So I appreciate being here. If you do want to continue the conversation, more than happy to jump down into the comments below and you can leave a message. You can leave a comment, you can ask a question. If you did enjoy this episode, please subscribe, share it with your friends, family or someone else that you think needs to listen to this, and we'll be back here again next week doing it all. Again, really do appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day, cheers you.

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