A serious goal that involves a major life change is an all-or-nothing proposition. You either commit to it, or you don’t. If, for example, you decided to become a writer, you would write every day—or more days than not. You might have a lot of days with futile or frustrated efforts, but you’d make a serious effort every day just the same. That’s what committing to being a writer means.

The same applies to another life change or goal, such as becoming more organized. If nothing else, every day you’d ask yourself: “How can I be a little more organized today?” You think of something, write it down, and then DO it. You make it more concrete. You break the abstract goal of “being more organized” into a specific concrete application for that particular day. You keep track of having done this, so that later on, if you feel, “I’m still not becoming more organized” you can cite evidence to the contrary.

Yes, forcing yourself is part of it, but not all of it. It’s also an issue of making it more concrete and applying your commitment to the change daily. You need to break apart this “floating abstraction” into a more workable concrete.