The Commitment
We’re a little more than a month into the new year and it’s time to evaluate progress against our BIG goals for this year.
Hopefully for most of us, these are not “stretch goals” that are basically guaranteed if nothing goes wrong. I mean goals where there’s a real chance that we won’t achieve it. Better than even odds that we might miss.
Big goals force trade-offs. You can’t just layer them onto an already full life and hope things work out. Something has to give.
Big goals, the kind where there’s a real chance we won’t get there, do a few useful things:
Build real resilience. Not optimism. The ability to manage missed days, bad weeks, and doubt without quitting.
Force clarity. When a goal requires trade-offs, it helps to see what actually matters and what doesn’t.
Increase follow-through. Saying the goal out loud and sharing it with others creates just enough pressure to stay committed when your motivation dips.
Change how we see ourselves. Consistency over time reshapes identity, even before the goal has been met.
Improve judgment. Having a coach or sounding board helps catch drift, course-correct early, and make better decisions under load.
The goal can be anything, as long as it’s difficult to reach and its well outside of your comfort zone. Sometimes it’s a learning commitment: getting good at something you’re currently bad at. Or a commitment to write a book or start a company. There’s typically slow progress. Lots of doubt and frustration. No shortcuts. The work isn’t impressive, but the consistency it demands has a way of reshaping everything else.
For me, these commitments tend to be endurance related. Long timelines. Boring training sessions. Plenty of chances to quit. No guarantees. This year, I have two commitments that fit squarely in this category: running my first 100K trail run (late September in Eastern Washington) and running the Seattle Marathon in under 3:45 (Thanksgiving weekend). Both feel achievable, but neither feels guaranteed.
Calling them commitments matters. A goal is something we try for. A commitment is something we organize around. It changes the question from “Will I do this today?” to “What needs to happen so that I can make progress toward this commitment?”
That framing has changed how I approach big goals. Fewer internal debates and less procrastination. More intention about where time and energy go. The outcome matters, a lot, but the commitment is where the work actually happens.