How Successful People Think: The Power of Commitment

YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE, RIGHT?I don’t know any sensible person who says, “I want to fail.”

Everyone wants success.

So why do so many people fall short?

Since 1997, working with people through NLP, I’ve heard countless stories of achievement, struggle, breakthrough, and disappointment.

One thing NLP teaches us is to look for patterns. When you study enough success stories, certain patterns begin to stand out.

There is one pattern I have found repeatedly, regardless of the person’s background, profession, or goal. This is the first step to achieving results, you want.

Before I tell you what it is, let me share a few examples.

One man told me his daughter was engaged. The groom’s family wanted to set a wedding date.

The problem? He didn’t have enough money.

He kept trying to delay the decision, but eventually the pressure increased.

“So I committed,” he told me.

Once he did, things started moving.

An unexpected business deal brought in money. Someone repaid a debt he had almost given up on. The wedding happened without any major problems.

Another man wanted to perform Hajj. He had a serious lower back injury and could barely walk. The day before departure, his doctor advised him not to go.

But he went anyway.

He completed Hajj and returned home. His pain actually became worse. He relied on painkillers for more than a month.

Then one day he made a decision.

“No more.”

He committed himself to living without the medication.

When I met him several years later, he was still free from both the painkillers and the pain.

Another man told me he used to be drunk almost all the time. His wife worked while he spent her earnings on alcohol.

One day his young daughter came to him. He tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away because of the smell of alcohol.

That moment hit him hard.

“I made a commitment to myself that day,” he said. “This will never happen again.”

He stopped drinking.

When I met him, he had been sober for more than twenty years.

I once had a person repeatedly call me about joining one of my trainings.

“I want to come,” he said, “but I probably won’t get leave from work.”

After several conversations, I finally said, “Trust me. Register anyway.”

He did.

Two weeks later, he was sitting in my classroom.

I could share dozens more stories, but they all point to the same thing.

The common factor was not intelligence.

It was not luck.

It was not confidence.

It was commitment.

A firm decision.

A point where a person stops negotiating with themselves and decides, “This is happening.”

That is where things begin to change.

When you burn the ships and remove the option of retreat, opportunities seem to appear that were invisible before.

I’ve experienced this myself.

As Nazeer Akbarabadi beautifully said:

Uth bandh kamar, kyun darta hai?
Phir dekh Khuda kya karta hai.

There is also profound wisdom in these often-quoted words:

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Now, if commitment is one of the greatest causes of success, what is one of the greatest causes of failure?

Indecision.

Indecision is like cancer to success.

It quietly destroys momentum before a person even realizes what’s happening.

It shows up mentally as confusion, lack of direction, hesitation, and low motivation.

It often shows up physically as low energy and a sense of being stuck.

The remedy is simple.

Make a decision.

Commit to it.

Then act.

Even if the decision turns out to be imperfect, you will learn, adjust, and move forward.

But indecision keeps you standing still.

So my friend, here’s the real question:

Do you merely want to be successful?

Or are you truly committed?