I recently announced my plans for a 12-month Founders Live world tour. This post describes a lesson from the first few weeks of my journey and what I have initially learned from taking the biggest risk of my life to date. Follow along here on this blog and here.

We’re just a few weeks into my year-long global journey and I have already connected some very important dots.

First off – and quite a bit less important than the next point – is the fact that I am weirdly comfortable in this new state of being. For those of you who didn’t read the above-linked post, I am currently in Boise, ID for January, city #1 in a 12+ city tour where I plan on living in each area for a month as I work with our local Founders Live leaders and grow the global brand along the way.

I’ve noticed my adaptations to changing and uncomfortable circumstances are becoming quicker and easier as the weeks go on. As I mentioned in a previous post, “Think about your life. You wake up (usually) at the same time. In the same room. Have your same morning routine. You (most likely) go to an office or your same place of work each day. Return to your residence. You (might) have a significant other who you enjoy spending time with. You have a mailing address.”

Not me! Not any more.

And you know what? That’s okay! I am now in a process of digitizing pretty much my entire life and learning to live in much more fluid and changing state. It’s quite freeing and something to be attentive to and improved upon each day. I am committed to adapting to this new life.

The next point is what I want to drive home to you today. It’s about Commitment.

You see, I thought I was committed. In my life. In my relationship. To my company.

I realize now although I was somewhat committed to all those things, I was never fully committed to any of those. I was not 100% committed in anything in my life. And to be honest with you that was a tough sentence to type.

And you may be thinking to yourself, “Wait, what? well, Founders Live is growing and Nick seems successful? How can it be he wasn’t committed?”

Yes, I was definitely working hard and committed to daily efforts of Founders Live. But there was something wrong. Something wasn’t fully locked in and it felt off. I realize now I was a bit complacent in my life. For some reason, I had fallen into a bit of zombie mode.

Now, by making the decision to end my relationship, setting out on the road and leaving the city I have called home for 15+ years, I learned real commitment. I now feel what 100% commitment is really like.

100% commitment requires you to give up something you care deeply about in order to retain the other thing in your life. For me, that was the loss of my relationship and the life I called my reality for 4.5 years. It involved removing the safety net and going all in.

True commitment involves some levels of pain and discomfort. Trust me, my decision and the now new reality have brought me both of those.

To drive this point home, I was recently asked on a podcast about commitment and this topic in general, and I told the following story. Being the creator of Founders Live and running our event in Seattle for almost 5 years I meet and talk with hundreds, if not thousands of startup founders. They tell me about their ideas and their companies. They might even pitch at our events. They seem on a good path. And good for them, I am a very big supporter of entrepreneurs and people creating their own companies.

BUT, my intuitive senses quickly kick in and I can almost feel this person’s level of commitment. It’s in the way they talk, what they say, how they say it, how they prepare (or not) for Founders Live pitch experience, etc.. The truth is most aren’t committed and their companies aren’t going to make it in the end. I can see it in the eyes. It could be for many different reasons, but the main one is – at the current point in time – they aren’t 100% fully committed to their vision and their path. There’s not enough pain and they haven’t given up enough. They are playing it safe. It doesn’t mean that can’t change (and I hope it does) but it does mean at that current point in time, they aren’t there yet.

I can sense it because I was there too, not very long ago in fact.

The lesson here is: You may think you are committed. But you need to ask yourself if you are 100% committed? And what does 100% committed look and feel like to you? What is holding you back and blocking you from reaching your potential? What do you need to remove from your life so that you can make a 100% commitment?

You may not like the answers to those questions but if you want to be successful you need to know them regardless. If you need help uncovering them, feel free to reach out.