EP20 | What Are You Committed To?

Are you more commitment or circumstance-driven? In this episode of the Create Purpose Podcast, Zach talks about how important commitment is to both himself, but also those he works with. He will also introduce you to the 3 things you can do to align yourself with your commitments to your business and give you that drive to do what you do best.  

 Episode resources:

• Create Purpose Website 

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• Person: Rich Litvin

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Transcript:

So, if you're not getting the results that you want to see in your business and your life, then you and I, we have to look at our commitments with an open and honest eye and be truthful to ourselves and really say, well, what am I really committed to? I know what I'm saying I’m committed to, but what am I really committed to.”

Welcome to another episode of the Create Purpose Podcast. I've just got a little bit of notes in front of me and you know, again, I just want to share some things that are on my mind. And I want to start with a question. What are you committed to in your business in your life? What are you committed to? You see this as a question that's been on my mind lately, this question of what am I committed to?

What are you committed to? I know what I want. I tell people all the time, what, I'm, what I'm building, what I want to do with my life, where I want to go. But am I committed to it? That question, which was asked to me by one of my coaches hit me and I've had some aha moments and I wanted to share them with you because there was a time in my life where my commitments didn't line up with what I said, they were, let me explain.

I found myself. Trying to please everyone else. I was more committed to others than I was to my own dream. This first came about in, in my corporate life as vice president of sales, moving my way up that corporate ladder in a way you could say I did quite well at it. You know, I got promoted and moved my way up.

But yet there is this kind of unfulfillment feeling this I was feeling unfulfilled and I know looking back now, I realized the reason I was unfulfilled is because I was what Rich Litvin says over obligated, under committed. And what I'm wondering about you, if you're listening, are you, might you be over obligated, under committed.

You see, I was so committed to everyone else and living up to their expectations and making sure that they were feeling good about things and they were happy. And I got to a point where I looked up, I looked around and I thought to myself, well, what about me? I've had these dreams and these desires, and they've literally sat on a shelf.

I haven't acted on them for you for the last three years. And I really like. I had to start becoming committed to my own dreams because I was feeling over obligated, under committed, obligated to show up and, and fulfill on the commitments that I was making towards others all the, while not committed to my own dream.

And it came up for me again recently in the form of my values, values and commitments are. Very similar, you know, my values. If you were to look on my whiteboard, I've got three words written on that board, courage, faith, and impact. Those are my three most important values, courage acting in spite of the fear and doing it anyway.

That's courage leaning in, walking out into the land of uncertainty, doing what scares me, but also brings me alive. And I know that courage is the doorway to all. Faith, not a religious faith, but just this inner, knowing this inner trust, knowing that I'm here for a purpose, there's something good around the corner.

And I need to trust that and allow it to come into my life rather than chasing it and pursuing it. I need to allow it to pursue me with faith and then impact. I am a service driven individual. I love helping. I love serving. And the word impact resonates with me because I want to make an impact. So those three words are my values.

Those values now become a compass. If you will, a true north, that really helps me know how I want to show up how I want to make decisions, how I want to behave and act on a day-to-day basis as an expression of those three values. If you were to ask me, are you committed to those values? I would say absolutely.

I'm committed to those values, but here's what I did research. I pulled up my calendar. I looked at where my attention was. I looked at what was on my to-do list. I looked at where my time was going. And if you were an outside, looking in. And I were to ask you, well, what do you think my values are? I would say I'd want to, I'm I'm building this.

I'm, I'm wanting to create this and move in this direction and do this and grow that and make more money. All that. I would say that. But if you were looking at my calendar, what might you see? So I looked at my own calendar through that lens. I would encourage you to do the same thing. Look at your calendar through that lens.

And here's what I saw. What were my values? What were, what was I really committed to? I was committed to safety, security, and comfort, quite the opposite of, of who I say I am and who I know I am and what really lights me up. And for me to move forward for you to move forward, I have to start to let go of safety of comfort security.

And maybe you do too. Maybe you do too. Maybe you need to. Live into your values, your real values of courage, or maybe it's impact or freedom growth. The only way for you to welcome those values into your life is you're going to have to let go of what you're actually committed to, which might be security or comfort.

Right. And that's what I'm realizing. And so. What are you committed to really, this is a powerful question because what you do consistently, whether it's helping you or hurting you is the thing you're committed to. So if you're not getting the results that you want to see in your business and your life, then you and I, we have to look at our commitments.

Open and honest, I, and be truthful to ourselves and really say, well, what am I really committed to? I know what I'm saying. I'm committed to, but what am I really committed to? You know, because it's normal, you know, to say like, I am committed to being profitable, making money to building a sustainable business, but yet do your actions and your decisions line up with those commitments.

And if that's not the case, oftentimes what the root of all that is fear, right? There's, there's this fear of other people's opinions, how they might react. If you make some of the choices, you know, you need to make, you might have to disappoint some people you're afraid you'll disappoint them. You're afraid you'll hurt them.

And so you continue to put yourself last. How is that serving you long-term? If you continue to do that, And stay committed to the things you're actually being committed to, and maybe feel obligated towards what are the chances you're going to fulfill on your dream and your ultimate desires in your life.

And maybe this sounds, as I'm saying this out loud, like that, that sounds kind of selfish, doesn't it, Zach? Yeah, it is. And here's the thing. If you're a business owner and you put, you let fear of other people's opinions, Lead instead of you and your dream leading, here's what here's, what's in store for you.

You're probably not going to be making the amount of money that you want to make. Personally, you're probably not going to be profitable. You're probably more likely to have, be carrying a balance on credit cards and, and, and not, you know, growing the money in your account. Right. You're, you're probably more likely to be experiencing the opposite.

At what cost, how much longer can you continue like that? There's going to come a point that you have to make a choice and that choice possibly might be. Having some tough conversations and getting your needs met in the business so that you can be profitable in and make that a non-negotiable truly commit to profit, to growth, to all the things you say you do want truly commit to those, to truly commit to those.

You might have to have some tough conversations. You might have to tell a team member. They, they can't continue that they need to transition that they're not a fit for where you're going. Those are tough things. And I don't want to take those lightly because we care about people, but if you don't make those hard decisions in your business and you act on them and lean into them, what might happen is, well, the business might not be able to support itself any longer, or you might just run out of gas and be like, you know what?

I haven't made any money for. It's been three, four or five years. And I'm just tired. What about, what about me? You know, I'm, I'm done and now the conversation is no longer. We got to change some things. It's this is all over I'm I'm closing shop. That would be a very tough conversation. Are you staying committed to your ultimate dream so that you can continue to create more what you want in your business?

And be at the creative cause of your business, or are you putting yourself at the effect of your business at the effect of what others might think or how they might react to some of the decisions you feel called that you need to make in your business? There's three things that I want you to do to help you get clear on your commitment so that you can fulfill on your dreams and build your business in a way.

You know what ultimately serves you. Yeah. It needs to, it needs to serve you. Why? Because until it serves you, you can't be your best and you're not going to be able to serve the greater team. It is the business and the health of that business, the business, your business, that is the rising tide that lifts all boats.

So it's time to start taking care of the goose that lays all the eggs. The golden eggs are right. You have to take care of the greater good of the. And if the business can't support some of the expenses, then you have to deal with that. You have to make the tough decisions. If the business can't support the newest greatest software, then you need to make the decision to do it manually for awhile.

You need to make the decision that's in the best interest of the greater good of your business and ultimately your long-term commitments to yourself and your dream. So three things for you to. Get clear on what your commitments are and then get back into alignment with them so that you can move forward in a new and powerful way.

One, you got to know what your vision is. You got to know what you're desiring to create and the results that you want to see. And so the call to action for you on this one is have you, when is the last time you've sat down with a journal and just. Or drew a picture of what you want the vision to look like for you and your business.

Meaning 3, 5, 10 years from now, what do you want this business to look like? What do you want your role in the business to look like? What do you want the culture of your business to be like? Where do you want to be spending your time? Where do you not want to be spending your time? Who do you want to be spending your time with?

What type of money do you want to be making? How profitable do you want to be? Where do you want to be located? What is your vision? Because until you have a vision, you don't have anything to be committed to. And here's the thing about commitment. It's a lot easier to be committed to one thing than to not be committed, to be unsure.

It's better to just be committed to something, even though you're not quite sure it's the thing you're not really sure. Is that really what I want? I want a challenge. You just, just. Take it take a stab. Well, what you think might excite you and just commit yourself to it because when you're not committed to one thing, life is a lot more difficult because now you're, you, you don't have any type of true north to make decisions from, but when you're committed, you already know, you already know, you know, it's, I think of like marriage, right.

Been married for 12 years now. I think my wife might be correcting me here in a bit. Been married for like 12 years. Lot of people have been married a lot longer, but I know the ups and downs of 12 years because I was committed. A lot of the decisions I had to make were a lot simpler. I knew which way I was going to lean because I was committed and when you're not committed and you're not sure, then you have a lot more choices.

Don't. And what's around the corner is paralysis by analysis, right? There's that saying? Right. We just, well, gosh, what do I do? But when you know your vision and you know what, you're committed to you, decisions get a lot easier. And so that's the first step is just get clear on your vision and commit to it.

What that looks like now is when you're committed to it, you now have a filter in which you can make decisions from. So number two is I want you to look at your life, look at your calendar. Are you more commitment driven, meaning acting consistently towards your vision, you know, making the boat go faster.

Are you doing things that make the boat go faster or are you more circumstance driven, letting your feelings dictate where you spend your time? You know that what if you're not your feelings anymore? What if you are your commitment? And you choose the stories that you tell yourself. You, you tell you, you create the thoughts and you focus your energy and attention on your commitments and let that be the guiding light.

So look at your life, pull up your calendar. Are you more commitment driven or circumstance driven? Just look at where you're spending your time. Are those things? Making the boat go fast. Or are they a distraction? Are they a way of avoiding what, you know, you really need to be doing your commitments? Are you avoiding the tough stuff?

And are you coming up with creative distractions, which is so normal, we come up with these creative distractions, like, oh yeah. Before I do that, I should really go over here and rewrite this, this email or redo this, or take some different pictures of that in instead of. We need to returning and dealing and really thinking about, and this is number three, what's the one thing.

What's the one thing that I need to be committed to right now. And I need to lean into, and I need to deal with and act on because when you come from that place of commitment, you start to move forward and you start to get the results that you ultimately want to see in your business. Those are the three things that I want to leave you with.

Get clear on your vision. Now look at your life. Number two, look at your life is what you're doing consistent with what you say you want. Are you truly committed through your actions towards what you want? And if not, it's okay. No judgment, no judgment. It's a time to right the ship and get back to your commitments.

It's what I'm having to do right now. I told you. I'm one I'm with, with ya. If you're feeling a little out of alignment, there's times where I will choose commitment or not commitment, I'll choose comfort and security over my commitments and values of being courageous, faithful, and focused on impact. I'm renewing my attention towards my commitments and I'm inviting you to do the same.

So what are you going to start saying no to so that you can start saying yes again to what. What matters most to you, your commitments. So I hope this was helpful. We'll see you in the next episode of the Create Purpose Podcast, see ya soon.

All right. I want to take a moment to make an announcement. I want to let you know that I'm taking applications right now for the Create Purpose Mastermind, an intimate Mastermind group for aspiring seven figure creative female business owners.

Who are looking to build their dream team. So if that's you go to createpurpose.net/mastermind, here's what it's going to look like. If you decide to spend a year with me and this intimate Mastermind, you know, when I was putting us together, I really was thinking about what are the outcomes that I want you to get as a result of spending a year in this group.

Number one is I want you to discover your unique greatness. Because when you surround yourself with people who see you for who you are and are able to draw you back to your own greatness so much can change. Number two, I want to help you master your inner game because everything in business starts with self-awareness of why things are the way they are.

Because as soon as you become aware of that, you get to decide and make a choice to change it for the better number three. I want to see you lead with confidence, you know, because I fundamentally believe you already have everything you need. You don't need another guru to show you the way and I want to see build your dream team.

And that's what you're we're ultimately going to be doing in this group is building a business. Around a team of people, the no longer centers around you, the leader, but you now have a team where you now are able to free yourself up to be the true CEO and creative visionary of your business. Ultimately to grow your business, make your business easier to manage more profitable and a lot more fun.

So if you're an inspiring seven figure creative female business owner, who's wanting to build your dream team and grow your business. Then please don't wait. There's only 12 seats available. So don't hesitate in getting your application in. What if this were to be your breakthrough? And what if this Mastermind is exactly what you need to really grow your business and bring your unique potential to life, to learn more, go to createpurpose.net/mastermind.

Hopefully you really enjoyed this podcast episode. And my hope is you found. Really inspirational. And also most importantly, I hope you took away some practical things that you can start to do and apply in your own life. So finally, I have one small favor to ask of you before you go, wherever you get your podcasts, whether that's Apple Music or Spotify.

If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review. Love to hear your thoughts. Come find us on social media, share it on social media. It just really helps us get the word out, helps us grow our audience. So please do that. Thanks to my team, Ashley Bolden, who handles all the admin and Chris Skipper who handles all the music and editing of this podcast for more information on.

Purpose podcast, you can go to www.createpurpose.net, and you can also follow me on Instagram @zach.arend. Please drop me a comment, reach out, drop me a DM. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what you're taking away from these conversations. What would you like to hear more of? Do you have any guests that you would love to see come on the show? And I'm always looking for great people to talk to people with great stories that can inspire you. And so if you know of anybody, send them my way, love to hear from. I'm your host, Zach Arend, and I'll see you in the next episode of the Create Purpose Podcast. Bye for now.