053 | Are You Interested or Committed?

We know that some people set and achieve their goals, while others keep talking about (but never actually doing) the same things year after year.

The people who accomplish what they say they want to do are committed. Those who don’t may only be interested.

In this episode, we talk about the difference between interest and commitment, the characteristics of each, and some questions to ask yourself as you consider your goals.

Lightly edited transcript appears after the show notes.

 Topics Discussed

• the difference between interest and commitment
• some characteristics of people who are committed vs. people who are interested
• questions to ask yourself about your interest or commitment to your goals

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Resources mentioned

Lifestyle Freedom Starter Guide

Episode 17: How to Budget Using the Zero-Based Budgeting Method for Lawyers

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Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. How are you, I hope you are doing well having an amazing day so far. I am excited to talk to you today about something that comes up in pretty much every area of life. I am sure we’ve all heard people who talk about wanting to write a book, or start a business, or go back to school, or pay off debt, right, and some people achieve those things, while others keep talking about doing them year after year. And one key difference between the people who actually accomplished what they say they want to do, and those who don’t, is interest versus commitment. So we’re going to talk about today. When you are interested in something, you’re curious about it. Right, you’re open to this new concept, maybe you’re reading books and listening to podcasts like you genuinely want to learn about this subject and you think it sounds good. You see what other people are doing in that space and you think it’s cool, you might be inspired. There is a lot of consuming information right like you’re consuming a lot of information but not applying it. Maybe you even take some steps when it’s convenient, but then something comes up and you let it go. Right when you’re interested, you’re not willing to give up anything for the goal. It’s just something that sounds good. You don’t want to make sacrifices for it. On the other hand, when you’re committed, then you will do this thing, even when you think it’s hard, even when it’s inconvenient, even when you fail, you might fall off the bandwagon or, you know have a setback or whatever but you get back up and you keep going. You will make it happen, you’re determined to make it happen you’re persistent, right, this is something that is a priority for you. And I think looking at interest and commitment in the context of relationships makes it even clearer, like let’s say you just met someone new, and you’re interested right they’re cute. You like talking to them. Maybe you just you’ve had good conversations you find them interesting but you’re not. For example, moving your whole schedule around for this person. Right, if it’s inconvenient to see them. Then you just won’t see him. If you have something else that’s more important, come up, then you will go and do that thing and not worry about this person, they’re not a priority in your life at this point, right. It doesn’t take much for you to walk away. On the other hand, when it’s someone you’re committed to you make them a priority. You do things, even when they may be inconvenient. You make sacrifices. You don’t throw the whole relationship away because they did something or even a lot of some things, right, they get on your nerves, you make it work. And if you look at a goal that you have in this context, as if your goal were a person that you’re in relationship with. Are you interested or are you committed. If we take it to money and being intentional with your life and things like that. Being interested looks like listening to this podcast every week and absorbing all the information you know you may even tell a friend or two about it, and encourage them to listen, but you never do anything with the information you learn. You hear about being more intentional with your life, you hear these tips about money and you think oh that’s so good, that sounds great, but you do nothing, or you learn all the tips about how to create a great budget or how to pay off your debt or how to change your money mindset, but you don’t implement any of those tips, you hear my story or maybe you hear stories of other people who have made the progress that they want to make with their finances, paid off debt but their net worth, maybe they’ve reached financial independence, or even outside the money piece they’ve achieved some other goal that you say you want. You hear these stories, and you may feel inspired, but then you go right back to what you were doing and you don’t take any steps to achieve that thing for yourself. You’re interested but you’re not committed. Right. When you’re committed, you listen to this podcast and you apply the information. You may even take notes as I know some of you do, you’re really studying the information, you don’t want to just hear it but you really want to know it you want to be able to apply it to your life. You got your budget down because you listened to the episode on how to create your budget. Episode 17, and you applied it. You hear stories about people paying off their debt or you listen to the episode on paying off your debt, and you don’t just think, oh that’s nice like you create your debt repayment plan and you get to work on it, you implement the things you learn, you’re committed to a goal that you have for yourself and you’re determined to make it happen. And let me back up and say that it’s not to say that you have to set up your budget, and completely turn around your spending or come up with a plan for paying off your debt or reaching whatever other goal or whatever and otherwise you’re not committed like I’m not saying that sometimes we have blocks mindset blocks, things like that, that keep us from taking those steps. But maybe you’ve taken a step of reaching out to me or another coach, or somebody else for help. In any event, you’re moving forward, right, you’re taking action towards your goal, not just thinking that sounds good. You’re doing something about it. I also want to say that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing like we’ve talked before about breaking your goals down and starting where you are. So what if instead of committing to the whole goal or final outcome, which some people find difficult to do. So what if instead of taking that whole big piece and trying to commit to that you just commit to the first piece, right, the very first step that you have to take to accomplish your goal, you commit to that piece you accomplish that. And then you can move on to the next step and the next one until you eventually accomplish the main goal, right. The main thing though that I want to leave you with is that commitment, drives you to take action, that leads to the result you want. It drives us to do things that we might not want to do in the moment in service of the ultimate goal. So for example, I’m going to choose not to buy this thing, so that I can put more money in savings. Commitment is a feeling and as we’ve talked about before your feelings are generated by your thoughts. So one of my favorite thoughts that creates the feeling of commitment for me is, I will do X, not just, it will be nice to do this, but I will do it. So think about what thought creates the feeling of commitment for you and practice that thought in relation to whatever it is you want to accomplish and then take action from that place. Finally I have a few questions for you to consider. If you’ve been thinking that you want to pay off your debt or save or manage your money better or whatever your goal is. So the first is what will it take to actually achieve this thing. What are the steps you need to take to accomplish it. Second, are you willing to take those steps, because it may be that you’re not and that’s okay. Right there may be some things that you’re interested in but don’t actually care about achieving right now. But third if you are willing to take the steps. What is it this stopping you from doing it. Why haven’t you done it yet. Once you have that list of the reasons you haven’t done it, that’s where your work is look at how each of those reasons makes you feel challenged whether they’re actually true because nine times out of 10 they’re not right, and consider whether you’re going to allow those reasons to keep you from this goal you say you want to accomplish. If you need help, achieving your money goal, you know, you want to pay off debt, or have more to show for the money you’re making, or whatever it is for you. I can help you, so head to rho Thomas comm slash coaching, let’s set up a time to talk about your situation and what’s going on for you. So all in all, I just want you to really look at whether you are committed to the thing that you say you want to do, or if it’s something that just sounds good. Because if it’s just something that sounds good, you’re not going to take the steps to actually do it. When you’re committed, you will be determined to make it happen no matter what. Alright so that is it for this episode, please take a second to subscribe to the podcast, leave me a review, both of those things helped more than, you know and I greatly appreciate them, share this episode with a friend who could use this information and don’t forget to come connect with me on social media, my handle on Instagram is at I am rho Thomas and I’m on LinkedIn as rho Thomas. Okay, friend, as we close out, I pray that you will get really honest with yourself about whether you’re truly committed to the goals you say you have. I pray that you identify and challenge all the reasons stopping you from achieving your goals. And as always, I pray that you continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice, you deserve. Talk to you later.