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Commit: How to Blast Through Problems & Reach Your Goals Through Massive Action

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Gain self confidence, boost your happiness, solve your problems, and blast yourself off to success -- by Committing to make this year the year YOU thrive.

We humans have a big problem.

We have exciting goals and dreams, but we feel stuck. We spend a lot of time thinking about the actions we need to take, but don't actually do them consistently. We then become overwhelmed with our day-to-day lives and let our dreams languish...and we settle for lives of mediocrity and regret instead of happiness, joy, and success.

Or, we have issues that keep us from being our best selves, but don't have the energy or problem-solving know-how to defeat them. Money woes. Relationship issues. Health problems. And more.

And sometimes, we experience both situations: Dying dreams and too many problems.

Can you relate?

Thinking small -- living inside the box, keeping our greatness inside us -- is what consigns us to this life of what-ifs and if-onlys. If we have big dreams and big problems, we need to go after them in a big way. That's what Commit is all about.

Committing is taking massive action to solve a problem or reach a goal. It's pretty much the opposite of the baby-steps approach. When you Commit, you do whatever it takes to make happen what you want to happen. You can use one giant, crazy, unbelievably powerful tactic, but it's even more effective to combine several tactics at the same time -- which we discuss in this self help e-book.

Committing is also about gathering so many resources and so much support that you can't go wrong. In the e-book, we talk about hiring help, creating accountability, and amassing the resources you need to get off to a mighty start. In this concise and actionable personal development e-book, you'll also find details on how to prepare for your Commit practice...how to troubleshoot common problems...and 20 ideas for reaching your goal or solving your problem through massive action.

Commit isn't one of those woo-woo motivation e-books whose helpfulness ends once you close the book...it contains actionable advice with real-world examples based on people's most common goals: Losing weight, starting a business, earning more money, finding a partner, healing a relationship, learning a language, and more. Each section boasts an assignment that you can do right then before reading on, so that by the end of the book you'll have your Commit plan rolling.

Tired of just wishing you had what it takes to start that business, get fit, find the love of your life, learn a new skill, go back to school...and more? Self improvement starts with Commit.

"Your book is terrific! Really inspiring but also so actionable--such a tough combo, I think, but you nailed it." --Sarah S., editor at Redbook

73 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2015

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42 people want to read

About the author

Linda Formichelli

31 books25 followers
Linda Formichelli is a freelance writer in Los Angeles. She spent 25 years writing for top publications and brands, from Good Housekeeping and Inc. magazines to Best Buy and Intel. She's also the author or coauthor of a dozen books, including the classic The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success.

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4 reviews17 followers
May 12, 2016
REVIEW of COMMIT: How to Reach Your Goals & Solve Your Problems through Massive Action

Suppose, like Linda Formichelli, two decades ago you wanted to become a professional writer and break free of working in the corporate cubicle. While baby steps might have seemed sufficient, she found that she and her family had to commit to this goal big time. She changed careers, moved from New Hampshire to North Carolina, found ways to economize on time and money, wrote articles and queries and cover letters non-stop, and with her husband proceeded to homeschool their son, while she fulfilled her personal commitment to becoming a prosperous freelance writer.

The message here is simple: sometimes, baby steps will NOT get you where you want to go.

Committing works four ways: it can give you explosively quick results; it boosts your motivation: it can automate your goals, as success feeds upon success; the victories make you feel good, rather than discouraged.

You can get an overview and some of the flavor of the book from the chapter titles:

• “What is Committing and Why the Heck Do I Care?”
• “Getting Ready to Commit”
• “Up Your Mental Game”
• “By the Numbers”
• “Noun Power”
• “Putting It All Together”
• “Troubleshooting”
• “What If You’re Really, Really Not Ready to Commit?”
• “Final Thoughts”
• “Where I Brag on Myself in the Third Person and Ask You to Buy My Stuff”

Examples of the level of helpful details are L.F.’s 20 tactics (her words, my explanations):

• “Embrace discomfort.” If it’s comfortable, you aren’t stretching enough.

• “Clear the decks.” Abandon lesser projects and concerns.
• “Make it non--optional.” If it is really worth doing, then you MUST do it.
• “Connect your goal to a larger purpose.” Why are you doing this, really?
• “Go big or go home.” Half-measures won’t suffice.
• “Check in with yourself.” Make sure this is what you really want.
• “Put some skin in the game.” The more you risk, the greater your motivation to succeed.
• “Read 10 or more books on the subject.” By then, you’ll nearly be an expert.
• “Overwhelm your goals with sheer numbers.” Barely enough is likely to be insufficient.
• “Make a list of 100 ideas.” Don’t settle for 10. Some of the next 90 are likely to be gems.
• “Do a 30-day challenge.” We can put up with almost anything for a month.
• “Fill every spare moment.” Like those ladies who knit while doing something else.
• “Deliberately move faster.’ You can speed it up if you decide to.
• “Surf your way to success.” The Web is your friend, your teacher.
• “Measure everything.” Management gurus advise that if it isn’t measured, it isn’t done.
• “Hire help.” Not all jobs are suitable as do-it-yourself projects. Divide and conquer, specialization and division of labor.
• “Crowdsourcing.” The ultimate in getting outside involvement.
• “Gear up.” You can’t do something with nothing. Buy the essentials, at least. Investment enhances motivation.
• “Make space.” You’ll need elbow room or even a whole room. Find it at home or perhaps rent it.
• “Let the competition spur you on.” If Mr. X. or Ms. Y. can do it, so can you, right?

Ms. Fornichelli gives the successful example of her family’s migration south and her successful freelance writing career, requiring a whole-hearted commitment. She gives the counter-example of their unsuccessful effort to keep their cats from destroying their furniture, an effort marked by half-measures and failure.

In my own case, I would contrast my tentative steps toward becoming a freelance writer in my retirement, as opposed to my triumphant second marriage, where I rescued my college sweetheart from a difficult situation, changed location, jobs, and career, downshifted my living arrangements and my other expenses, and was blessed with the marriage that I had always hoped for.

“Faint heart never won fair lady” the adage goes. Whether in love or war or career, one must commit fully to achieve great outcomes.

If you have a big dream, buy this book.


Profile Image for Noelle Brooks.
13 reviews2 followers
December 21, 2017
Got Me Motivated

Concise, clear and highly actionable, I loved reading this brief yet helpful book. The massive action philosophy is one I intend to adopt with creating my freelance business in 2018. Already started mass applying for gigs and lining up e-courses. I recommend this to anyone who just needs a push and some guidance to truly commit.
Profile Image for Nancy Badger.
Author 47 books207 followers
February 2, 2015
I was looking for a non-fiction book in my quest to meet some goals that seemed to fade away when Linda Formichelli asked me to read her book, Commit. This book is uplifting, and I feel it will help me succeed in making my big dreams come true. Her well laid-out chapters give me the building blocks to go after these dreams in a big way along with the tools and motivation I need. I can imagine many situations in my life that might have turned out positive if only I had committed my energy to solving the problem. The author not only motivates the reader to commit, but shares many suggestions and how the reader can actually accomplish their goals. My notebook (which she recommends to have with you all the time) is filled with ideas, and I am off to make them work.

Profile Image for Kimberly.
2 reviews1 follower
February 6, 2015
Commit's biggest strengths are:

1. It introduces a revolutionary new method of accomplishing goals, which is the opposite of the "baby steps" approach generally promoted.
2. It gives loads of examples for each new step introduced, and clearly outlined tasks. So, it gives you baby steps for your massive action.

I love self-help books, and I really enjoyed this one, which is a super quick read (you can go through it in one or two sittings). I think the Commit concept of massive action through simultaneous actions is really brilliant, because as Linda Formichelli says, you reap immediate results that keep you motivated. Props to her for introducing this much needed, fresh idea.
Profile Image for Melissa Plantz.
Author 10 books7 followers
December 12, 2015
Massive Action Required

I really enjoyed this book. Linda makes committing an easy practice by breaking her ideas down into easy tasks. She gives great examples of how to accomplish goals without spending a fortune. As a goal-setter and tracker, I believe her advice can help others reach their goals quicker than they ever thought possible.
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