Energize yourself by finding a clear, ambitious goal that you’re confident about achieving. Clear, challenging goals are essential and give meaning and direction to work and life. But a goal alone isn’t enough. There has to be a deep personal belief in your own ability to achieve it.

This isn’t about skill or competence. Many competent people fail. It’s about confidence. Develop that confidence thru training, research, gathering data, and seek the counsel of a good role model.

Choose a goal with which you can personally identify and that is well defined and concrete. Understand the components, as well as the hurdles you will need to overcome to reach it. To achieve it you must believe that it is worthwhile, given your own values. You should feel stretched, not overwhelmed.

To succeed you must clear negativity and leverage strong emotions. Achieving big goals is accompanied by stress and pain. You need a way to process painful emotions and inner tensions. A support group to share fears and frustrations or sports can help ease the tension.

That source of support could be anything from a hobby to a special place that has an energizing effect. It might be family and friends. You must have a reliable source of positive energy.

Finally, you must develop the ability to maintain focus and the key is visualization. When Thomas Watson founded IBM he developed a clear picture of what the company would look and act like when completed and visualized his goal as if it were done.

What will your goal look like when it’s accomplished? Can you picture the customer buying it? Using it? Being happy with it? This picture is more important than anything else and will support you through your most difficult times. The clearer this picture, the stronger your determination and persistence toward accomplishing your goal.

You need to prepare a written list followed by a mental model of the actions you will take, a road map to follow. Imagine yourself performing a specific set of actions to bring your product or service to market. This prepares you to act positively when obstacles inevitably come up. Once you have done that, you need to summon the courage to commit.

In A Bias for Action by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal they say commitment; “Means taking ownership for the ultimate outcome. You must take time for conscious reflection, for considering your alternatives, and for asking yourself if the project feels right. Do you really want it? Is it exciting? Does it match your personal values and beliefs? Can you stand behind it both rationally and emotionally?”

Harnessing willpower is not something that happens by itself but it is essential for accomplishing any ambitious undertaking. When you feel like “jumping ship” and you will, only willpower can keep you on course. Defining goals, overcome negativity and using visualization are the ingredients of unstoppable willpower.

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