Make the Commitment

Through life’s lessons, you may have come to realize that when you are truly engaged in something, you naturally focus better and almost always achieve a greater outcome. You may have also noticed that your level of engagement for learning is significantly influenced by how you feel emotionally, mentally, and physically. When these aspects of you are in balance, you feel like you are on fire—nothing can stop you. Yet when things are misaligned, you’re more prone to experience fear or failure, during which discord, imbalance, and even disease can rear their ugly heads and threaten to destroy the body-mind-spirit balance that’s so critical to your well-being.

Change that results in personal growth and achievement is rewarding but rarely easy. For example, when I was very young, my mom enrolled me in swimming lessons at the local city center. To complete the class and be eligible for the next level of lessons, you had to swim the length of the entire pool without grabbing hold of the side. I failed miserably. In fact, I barely let go of the side of the pool during the whole ordeal and was one of just a few kids who didn’t pass. Why? Even though I took the lessons and did the work every week, I wasn’t ready for the big test, and it reminds me of other times in my life when I started something but didn’t hit my goal or finish it. Whenever that has happened, I’ve examined the root cause of my failures and realized I was the culprit. I wasn’t ready for the challenges.

But that’s not the end of the story. My mom reenrolled me in the same class, and the second go-round was a different experience. Well before I took my first lesson, I made a personal commitment to pass the test come hell or high water. I would lie in bed and picture myself reaching the other end of the Olympic-size pool and see my mom’s approving smile. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was creating a vision of success. I took the class again, and on the big day of the test, I achieved success! Now I have to admit, I dog-paddled the whole way. (I was the youngest kid in my class!) But this solution worked, and I achieved my goal.

The need to get engaged and make a commitment to change is something our clients must accept, particularly when beginning the process of improving their personal leadership. For example, we had a client at MAP who was the owner of a chain of family-style restaurants. He thought he could turn around his business by using only a few parts of the MAP program. But when he attended MAP’s 2.5 day executive workshop, he realized the degree of change required, and only then did he fully commit to the right mindset and embrace the emotionally, physically, and mentally challenging work. Doing so became the catalyst to his successful leadership and business transformation.

I am confident that you have many similar stories about getting in the right mindset to make change happen. Making the commitment to learn something significant or new takes energy, focus, and determination. When you are not mentally ready to make changes, you find ways to resist them.

To get results, be fully present and get involved with this book’s journey. In doing so, you will maximize the benefits of your time and effort. As you move through the lessons offered here, check in with yourself and continually assess whether or not you are present and committed. If you’re not, take action to correct the imbalance.

Here are some ways to stay on track:

Be mentally engaged. To make positive change, you’ve got to get in a positive mindset. Have you ever noticed that when you put your mind to some challenge, you can usually succeed? It’s not an accident because success starts with the belief that you can reach your goal. Most leaders want to do a good job and want to be great at their responsibility to lead themselves—just like you. When you mentally commit and create focus, you can get it done. Adopt an “it’s time to change” mindset, pushing out thoughts that will distract or deter you.

Be physically engaged. When you’re feeling good physically, you have the ability to concentrate more and be more productive. If you want to maximize your leadership potential, it’s critical to take care of your health and well-being. A regular routine for eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep, and exercising will help sustain a state of physical readiness.

Be emotionally engaged. Disciplined Leaders realize that they can’t control everything happening around them but are conscientious about how they react and consistently choose the “higher ground.” A perfect example of this was when George W. Bush received the 9/11 news while meeting in front of an elementary class in Florida. Realizing that he needed to maintain composure in front of these school children, who had no clue what the president had just learned, he generally appeared calm and let the children finish their presentation. Yet he obviously had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Bush and so many other leaders have been in countless situations in which they’ve disciplined themselves to maintain control over their emotional reactions. You, too, have the ability to be in complete command of how you handle whatever is thrown your way. There are many things in life you can’t control, so you must develop the ability to maturely manage your emotions. Of course, if you’re physically and mentally alert, it will help with your emotional engagement as well. All of these elements tie together when we’re talking about creating that state of engagement from which you can launch, commit to, and excel in leadership.

In Summary: The Disciplined Leader takes charge first with an inward focus. To become fully disciplined, balance and sustain your state of readiness on a physical and emotional level. Equip yourself with the physical energy and mental focus to optimize the disciplines put forth in this book. Be disciplined enough to overcome the fear of what those disciplines are—keep reading.