Commitment is essential to progress. If you can’t commit… if you can’t keep your promises, it will be impossible to achieve your goals. We all think, of course I keep my promises; when I promise someone I’ll do something, then I always do it. Can you say the same thing about promises you make to yourself? All progress comes from change and change requires you to commit to moving out of your comfort zone.

I just finished the first draft and first revision of my new book (working title, The Maximum Productivity Makeover for Creative Geniuses). I set a goal to write a book in 2010, but I knew I had to start long before December or it wasn’t going to happen.

Of course, as an entrepreneur, things come up. Emergencies happen and life gets in the way. After one month and then another zipped by with no progress made on my book, I realized I needed to buckle down.

I intended to honor my commitment to myself, but when I spotted an opportunity to reinforce my commitment by adding some external accountability, I jumped at it. Accountability is an extremely powerful tool to help you focus and take action. I enrolled in a coaching program where a group of potential authors gets together offer instruction, tips and encouragement to each other with the objective being for each participant to write a book in a weekend!

I didn’t really expect to complete my book in a weekend, but I thought that with that kind of rocket launch start to writing my book, I could finish the first draft within a month. Did I need to pay an $800 enrollment fee for a program to get this done? Probably not! So why did I?

Commitment is a powerful energizer, especially if you’ve invested heart and pocketbook! The program included four group-coaching sessions by phone during the weekend, a follow-up session a month later and 24 pages of information you need to know to become a published author.

Even the most successful people don’t have money to throw away so my $800 payment guaranteed I’d make space in my agenda to work through the program. I canceled everything for the long weekend, prepared meals in advance and made sure I accumulated enough sleep and exercise ahead of time so I’d be prepared to take full advantage of this weekend as a springboard for my writing project. And it worked!

Using the momentum I created that weekend, I continued to make space in my agenda to complete the book. More than 250 pages and one month later, the first draft is finished! Yes, it was an intense month, but I stayed focused because I wanted the investment to pay off.

That’s the power of commitment. And just a small sample of what you can accomplish when you honor your most important commitments, the promises you make to yourself.

How can you solidify your commitment to yourself?

What do you need to do to carve out time to complete that long-delayed strategic project?

In the comments, I’d love to hear the strategies you use to keep your commitments to yourself.

If you’d like to start keep your commitment to yourself and double your productivity, join The Maximum Productivity Makeover for Entrepreneurs!. It starts in May.