Mackay: Make a commitment to succeed

If you want to excel at anything in life, you need to be committed. If you only want to be good enough to get by, then a commitment to excellence is not necessary. If you are committed to a cause, you don't need to tell anyone. They can tell from your actions.

I often wonder how people can be happy or at peace with themselves if they don't make a commitment to something, whether it be succeeding at work or improving a skill. How do you reconcile expecting desired results without giving an honest effort to be the best you can be?

I know that if you go into any endeavor and say you will give it a try to see if it works, your half-hearted effort will probably fail.

Alan Page, Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle and Minnesota Supreme Court justice, said: "I grew up with the sense that if you're going to do something in life, do your best. When I was growing up, I didn't know what I wanted to be, what I would do, but I do remember being told, 'If you're going to be a garbage man, be the best garbage man you can be.' That stuck. If it's important to you and you want to be successful, there is only one person you can look at as being responsible for success or failure. That's you."

Wanting something and actually making a commitment to getting it are two different things. Your goals may be big and worthy, but do you have the passion to see them through? Success starts with a road map and a strategy; that's just the beginning. You must be prepared to see the action plan through — making a commitment to get to the finish line.

To determine whether you are honestly prepared to make a commitment, Rosabeth Moss Kanter of the Harvard Business School suggests testing yourself with some questions. Among them:

• Do you feel strongly about the importance of your goal — why it's necessary to achieve?

• Is your goal vital to the future of people you care about?

• Is it realistic? Are you sincerely convinced that your goal can be achieved?

• Are you willing to put your credibility on the line for it?

• Can you make your goal the primary focus of your activities?

• Are you willing to devote your personal time — evenings, weekends, vacations — to bringing your goal to reality?

• Are you committed to the long term as you work toward your goal?

If you can answer yes, your chances for success improve dramatically. It's the difference between wanting and succeeding.

If you still doubt the importance of commitment, consider this story.

At 6:50 p.m., as evening fell in Mexico City in 1968, John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania hobbled into the Olympic stadium — the last man to finish the punishing marathon. The victory ceremony for the winning runner was long over and the stadium was almost empty as Akhwari — his leg bloody and bandaged — struggled to circle the track to cross the finish line.

Watching from a distance was Bud Greenspan, a documentary filmmaker famous for his Olympic movies. Intrigued, Greenspan walked over to the exhausted Akhwari and asked why he had continued the grueling run to the finish line.

Mackay's Moral: Commit or quit … it's up to you.