144: Committed or Merely Interested? The Power of Extraordinary Commitment for Big Results

Welcome to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross. Each week, I focus on the systems, strategy, and big thinking you need to CEO your business and life to the next level. Are you ready? Let's go.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I am thrilled to have you here. How are you doing on this September day? Does it feel like fall yet? Do you feel like you're in the “swing of things”? A lot of times, I find that my clients have renewed energy in September. They see that the year still has a whole quarter left in it. There are lots of things that they could accomplish, and they're ready and raring to go.

Is this you? Are you ready and raring to go? Are you taking action on that? Which gets into the topic of what we're discussing today. Today, we are talking about extraordinary commitment. Now this is one of the topics that I mentioned, not just mentioned, spend some time on in She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary, which is launching in just two weeks. Can you believe it? Two weeks from now.

If you haven't gone to shethinksbigthebook.com and gotten yourself on the Launch Day List where you're going to get access to special pricing, a ticket to The Insider Session I am doing in October where we're going to go from being a reader to being an implementer, if you buy the book on launch day and you enter in your order number, you're going to get a free ticket to that webinar/masterclass/insider session that I'm doing in October, you definitely want to go and get on the list shethinksbigthebook.com to have access to all of this.

Let's get back to this extraordinary commitment idea. Now, if you listened to the last episode where I talked about how to make any decision, I mentioned in there that there's a difference between being interested and being committed. I mentioned this in a lot of podcast episodes.

This is a concept I am really passionate about. I am passionate about getting my clients to recognize when they're just interested versus being committed. Today I want to walk you through how to determine whether you're interested or committed and how to then create extraordinary commitment and why that's important.

I want to start with a little bit of a story. I have a client, I'm going to call her Claire. Actually, I have two Claires right now, but Claire is really interested in creating an online course. They think it's going to be just super easy to put it out there in the world. It's going to be a source of passive income. They're not going to have to babysit it and they want to help other people gain the knowledge that they have in their particular areas of expertise.

These two Claires have two different areas of expertise. Now, one is a little further along in the process of thinking about it. We talked about it, I would feel like ad nauseam, it came up in every coaching session over a series of months. She would say to me, “I really need to keep working on this course. I really need to put it out there. I mean, I've hired someone to even help me do it, but I'm not getting back to them with the pieces of the puzzle that they're requesting. What's going on?”

We tried to do what I call the usual tactics of setting deadlines, making decisions around what was going to happen first, second, and third, deciding what the goal was going to be of the course, and why was she doing it, so she had a clear why, but it still wasn't happening. Why? Because she wasn't putting committed energy toward this.

I talked about this in the book. She was just putting interested energy toward it. But by doing just the interested energy going that route, she was really doing herself a disservice. She was giving energy to it, but not enough to make a difference. Actually, that can be exhausting.

Putting interested energy into something can be exhausting and it also creates some overwhelm because that interested energy does take away resources from other things. It takes time. In this case, it even took money, it took a lot of brainpower, and it took that energy that could have gone towards those resources, that could have gone towards something else away from that something else, which she probably would have been more committed to.

We had to really assess this. We had to work through some feelings that went along with recognizing that this was just interested energy, not committed energy. She finally came to the conclusion that she was going to put it aside for now. She had to get to a place where that felt okay to her and she did.

I want you to think about this. I want you to think about this energy, interested energy versus committed energy, and creating extraordinary-committed energy as like a fuel gauge. You know, in your car, there's that gauge that tells you how much gas is in the tank.

Think about the empty side, it wasn't like that there was empty fuel because you probably weren't putting fuel or energy towards this, but the gauge goes from uninterested to interested to committed. When you get to committed, your pedal is on the metal, you're actually going fast, and it feels a lot easier, to be honest. You're out of stuck stress, you're in progress stress.

I want to ask you, it's September, do you have any projects or any things you've been thinking about that you just can't seem to move forward on but yet you can't let go of? They’re just dangling. I want to share with you four questions that you can ask yourself to identify why this is happening and whether you're really truly committed to these projects or ideas.

Number one, if someone asks you, “Why haven't you been working on that? Or why haven't you done it?” what do you tell them? You might say, “Oh my god, I've been so busy with XYZ,” “I just haven't had the time,” or “I need to really sit down and look at that. I need to have a free day. I need to have more money to put towards it.” Whatever that is, the answer is going to show you what you're prioritizing over this because you're choosing to do other things than the thing that you say you want to do.

You're not working on the project, you're working on something else or you're putting your time, money, and brainpower towards something else. You're prioritizing something else versus this particular project. That is a clear sign that you're not committed.

Here's number two: Are you waiting to be motivated to do this activity? Do you say to yourself, “I just need to be motivated. I just need to get motivated around it.” That's going to happen when? If you're not motivated right now, today as you're listening to this podcast, then you're not committed.

However, if you expect to enjoy doing it, then that's a false assumption. If you're waiting to find joy in it, then that might not be happening. For example, you may not like going to the gym and sweating on the elliptical machine. But if you're committed to the results that going to the gym brings, then you'll still be there every day.

We don't have to want to do everything we're doing, we don't have to have all of this motivation to do it, you just have to do it if you're committed, like walking the dog. I'm going to guess, there are days that you don't want to walk the dog but you walk the dog because you're committed to exercising the dog and keeping the dog healthy.

You have an extraordinary commitment to the dog. You're not just interested in having a healthy dog, you're committed to having a healthy dog even when it's raining and snowing. Think about whatever this activity is that you want to be working on, like creating this course. Are you waiting for motivation? That means you're not committed, you're just interested.

Third question. When someone asks you, “Hey, how's it going on that?” what do you tell them? Do you tell them, “Oh my god, it's going great. I've been doing X, Y, and Z,” or do you tell them, “Oh, it's plotting along.” “Plotting along” is interested. “It's going great” is committed.

Here's a side note to this one, have you even told anyone about this project or this activity, or are you keeping it all up in your head? If you're keeping it all up in your head, again, you're interested, you're not committed. I want you to declare it out in the world once you're totally committed.

If you haven't declared it out there in the world, I'm going to guess that you're not extraordinarily committed. Now, why is extraordinary commitment really important? Because I want you to imagine your life, what would it be like if you actually lived up to all of your commitments? What kind of relationship would you have with your significant other? What kind of relationship would you have with your clients? What kind of opportunities would you create for yourself? How would that make you feel about yourself?

I'm going to guess, just based on my experience, that you would feel amazing, that you would feel awesome. But if you think, “Oh my gosh, I'm already overly overcommitted, I need to say no to more things,” and you're asking me now, “Andrea, if I want to be extraordinarily committed, that would be super exhausting. I mean, I'm committed, but am I extraordinarily committed? I don't know,” here's something else to ask yourself, and the next question, “Do I tend to focus on all the obstacles to doing this activity or am I focused on achieving the result?”

If you're focused on all the obstacles, then you're looking for reasons not to do the activity. You probably have to do a little bit of mindset work to uncover fears—go back and listen to the episode on fears—that are hampering your commitment. You may not want to see if you can do something different to solve the problem that this activity is meant to solve.

If you're saying, “Alright, I want to create a course, it's going to create some passive income,” but you're not creating the course, I want you to ask yourself, “Is there another way to create that passive income?” There might be because right now, maybe you're committed to creating the passive income but you're not committed to creating the course because you're coming up with all of the obstacles. You're committed to the passive income, but you're not committed to the course. There's really no extraordinary commitment to creating the course.

Here's the last question: how do I feel when I can't get to this activity? Do I feel anxious and want to really get right back on track or do I easily set it aside for tomorrow? This is like what's the relationship with this activity? What's the relationship you have with your business? Is it always going to be there no matter what, or do you feel anxious about not doing it?

If you feel anxious, then it's probably a higher priority, and you're on the verge of being committed. It's a little more than interested but you're not quite there yet. What I mean by extraordinary commitment is really the ability to commit to achieving extraordinary results, which means being smart about your commitments in the first place.

You've got to be smart about your commitment in the first place to wholeheartedly, which I love that phrase, wholeheartedly dedicate yourself to something, you've got to be really, really choosy about what you dedicate yourself to. Being overcommitted is really going to lead you to misery and it's going to lead you to not serving the people in your life and the things in your life well.

One of my favorite sayings is that you either have reasons or you have results. You've got reasons why this is happening or not happening, or you have the results to show that you were extraordinarily committed. I want you to choose the results. I want you to choose to be extraordinary at a few things by being wholeheartedly dedicated or truly committed, versus just being good enough because you're overcommitted or have lots of things on the back burner because you're overly committed.

Thinking this way, meaning thinking about being extraordinarily committed, really affects every area of your life. Here are the benefits of being extraordinarily committed: extraordinary commitment gives you energy. The things that you're extraordinarily committed to don't zap your energy.

Writing this book, I was extraordinarily committed to it and it really wasn't zapping my energy. Was it sometimes tiring and laborious? 100%. But I didn't think of it as a chore. Regular old commitments, you might think about as chores but doing what you're truly emotionally invested in generates energy no matter how difficult it is.

Go back. Think about that project that's still looming out there. If you were extraordinarily committed to it, would it generate energy no matter how hard it was? Here's the second thing that extraordinary commitment does, it saves you time because you're no longer in that land of indecision.

The land of indecision not only uses a lot of energy, but it wastes a lot of time. Listen to the podcast on how to make any decision. “I don't know” or “I'm not sure” keeps us in limbo land and it postpones our progress. It keeps us in stuck stress and it sends us into busy land where we can just cross things off the list without achieving anything important.

Not deciding is a decision but not deciding is a decision to just stay interested. It gives us a sense that we're doing something without actually accomplishing it. What that really means is that you have decided to stay in a place of confusion, doubt, and fear instead of making a decision that will lead to progress. Not deciding is a decision to stay in the land of confusion, is a decision to stay interested but not extraordinarily committed and it sucks up energy.

Here's the third thing that extraordinary commitment does, it increases your action. If your purpose is meaningful and will contribute positively to the world, then you have a responsibility to make decisions. Hesitating is going to reduce your contribution to the world. It even relates to working out or staying healthy in general.

When you're healthier, we contribute in a more meaningful way. When you get on that elliptical machine, you're contributing in a more meaningful way. We can become 100% contributors.

Yesterday, I literally listened to a class, it was like multiple hours over two days, about public speaking. The person that did this, leading the whole class, kept saying, “You have something to say, you have something to share that's meaningful. It's time that you commit to sharing it, to create it.” She didn't use this word, but I kept thinking extraordinarily commit to sharing your message to the world so that others can hear it.

I have been doing that through my book. That was an extraordinary commitment. Now I'm thinking about public speaking, which can be another extraordinary commitment. But once I become extraordinarily committed to it, it's going to increase my action. It's going to give me energy. It's going to save me time.

Commitment, my friends, is really a form of decision-making, and decision-making is having power over one's life. What we do inside coaching is that we determine what we want to be committed to. We make decisions so that we have power over our own lives. That's when life becomes interesting. That's when we can grow. Exercising that power over your life by being disciplined about your commitment makes your life interesting.

Extraordinary commitment goes a step even further. Big thinkers don't make arbitrary decisions. I talked about this in the book. They make clear ones that lead them further toward fulfilling their purpose and their needs. They choose wisely and they make sure they're investing in themselves and their relationships so that they can even become more impactful, make a bigger impact. They get really clear on what to commit to and what not to commit to.

I encourage you to pick up a copy of She Thinks Big because in there, I have a little chart that has decisions. It's called Decisions Lead to Action. I say, “If this is your decision, this is the action that's going to lead to yes decisions and no decisions.” Because not deciding, remember, is just a decision to stay interested.

Make sure that on September 26th, you get a copy of this book so that you can see this chart, the yes decisions and what happens, and then no decisions and what happens, and that you get access to this list of questions that you can ask yourself to help you decide whether or not you're extraordinarily committed.

I want to leave you with this story about extraordinary commitment. You might know that we're building this house, we bought this lot, and we bought the lot on a whim, almost three years ago now. My husband's someone who is very calculated about decisions, I mean, it goes along with his work, he should be calculated about his decisions, and I'm a quicker decision maker.

We saw this lot and I looked at him and I was like, “I think we should just buy the lot right now today. We need to go home. We need to get our checkbook. We need to come back. We need to give him a deposit on the lot right now.” He was like, “Really? What if we don't want to build on it? What if this? What if that? What if the other thing?”

I said to him, I was like, “Listen, what's the worst thing that can happen? The worst thing that can happen is that we decide we don't want to build and we're going to sell it back. We probably would sell it back for a profit. That's probably not such a bad decision. That's not such a bad outcome.”

At that point, I was committed to buying the lot and I got him to be on board to committed to buying the lot. When we were out there just looking at lots riding around in this ATV golf cart, we were just interested but now we're committed and I literally go home, get the checkbook, and come back and I tell him to call the guy that was selling the lot, the representative of the development as we're driving home telling him we're coming back with a check so he doesn't sell that particular lot to anyone else.

That's a whole other story for different podcasts. But we came back, we gave him our check, we were committed. Now we had to move into the extraordinary commitment piece of the puzzle where we were actually going to build. That's a different level of commitment.

It's also a level of commitment where you might not always feel motivated, where there's going to be definitely hard parts to it, where it's going to take a lot of time, money, and energy, but it's also, in the end, going to give us time, money, and energy when we have a finished product.

But I've really been living out over these past almost now three years what it feels like to be extraordinarily committed to something in my personal life and something in my professional life and having them happen at the same time. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot. It's a lot, my friends. It is a lot.

A lot of people have asked me why we're doing them at the same time and I don't really have any great answers to that, except that that's just the way it turned out and it's the way it turned out is perfect. But I've been feeling this extraordinary commitment down into my bones and I think I have grown so much from being in this situation that I'm in with this extraordinary commitment to two super big things.

It's pushed me to different levels and I want you to experience that. I want you to experience being extraordinarily committed. Doing it by yourself is not easy. If we didn't have our support team around the building of the house, the builder, our interior designer who I love, love, love, by the way, can't get enough of her, if we didn't have her, I would have thrown in the towel. I wouldn't have gotten to extraordinary commitment, or at least I wouldn't have stayed there.

If I didn't have my publisher pushing me and my editor with this book, I wouldn't have done it. I want you to ask yourself if there's something that you have an inkling that you want to be extraordinarily committed to, you want to move away from just interested and move past committed to extraordinary commitment, who's supporting you? Because you cannot do this alone.

I would love to be that person. I would be honored to be that person to support you in your extraordinary commitment. Let's chat about it. Even if you're just on the verge, let's chat about it. How do we do that? We just set up what I call a consult call. I ask you a whole bunch of questions. You don't have to prepare for it. But if I ask you the right questions, we can gauge where you're at with it and what you need to create the outcome or the result you're looking for.

Remember, you've got reasons or you have results. I want you to have results. To set up this call, you can go to andreaslinks.com, click book a call. Do it. It's worth it. This is what big thinkers do. It's time you become a big thinker. She Thinks Big, the book, coming out September 26th. Head to shethinksbigthebook.com to get on the list for launch day and head to andreaslinks.com to schedule a call so that I can help you become an extraordinary thinker. Let's do it. See you next time. Remember now is the time to level up. If not now, when, my friends? TikTok, let's go.

Hey, listening to podcasts is great. But you also have to do something to kick your business up a notch. You need to take some action, right? So go to andreaslinks.com and take the quiz. I guarantee you'll walk away knowing exactly what your next best step is to level up.