I have a poster on my office wall from a company I admire. Lululemon Athletica is based in Vancouver, Canada, and creates athletic wear for women. But they don’t just sell just clothing, they sell an idea. And that idea is that we are all powerful, that we have the strength, the spark within us, to be who we want to be. There are a lot of truisms packed into this poster, but the one that stands out to me today says this:

Successful people replace the words “wish”, “should” & “try” with “I WILL”.

This “I WILL” statement leaves no room for doubt. There is no waffling here. When we say, “I WILL”, it means we’re serious and we’d better get cracking.

A good way to move toward any goal is to tell others about it. I’m not suggesting we share our dreams and goals with just anyone. There’s a real danger in sharing hopes with naysayers. Gosh, that’s the easiest way to crash your ship against the rocks. But when we share our goals with people whom we know will be supportive, who will ask the right questions to help our ideas blossom, who will be in our corner, the “I WILL” becomes more real. It creates an air of accountability. Once we tell someone “I WILL”, we risk embarrassment and humiliation should we fail to, in the very least, make the effort.

The “I WILL” statement forces us to take charge of our lives. It’s so easy to blame the economy, our childhood or the weather for our woes. But when we say “I WILL”, it’s all on us. We take responsibility for our lives. We own up to our mistakes. We make our own choices. We move ahead knowing that, as Frankie sang, “I did it my way.” How liberating to know that win or lose, triumph or tragedy, we are the master of our own lives?

“I WILL” makes us fully human. It keeps us present right here, right now. When we commit to “I WILL”, we often find that the road rises to meet our feet. We plan the work, and we work the plan. “I WILL” is nothing short of a liberation from the chains of mediocrity, from wishing our lives away.

So, I challenge you to think about what it is you truly want in your life.  Say “I WILL” to your dream. Make a plan, take the steps to make it a reality. Go out and get it. WILL YOU start today?

Stacie Zinn Roberts

Stacie Zinn Roberts is a nationally recognized, award-winning writer and marketing expert with more than 25 years of experience. She has won more than 40 national awards for her work including the United Nations Environmental Program for retail environmental marketing, as well as from organizations such at the Public Relations Society of America and the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association. She’s written for industry publications such as Golf Course Management, Sports Turf, Golfdom and PR Daily. She spent eight years as the president and director of marketing for Environmental Turf, where she developed the branding for SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum, the grass that eventually became the greens grass for the Rio Olympic Golf Course. Stacie served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Florida Turfgrass Association as Chair of the Research & Scholarship Committee where she worked closely with the scientists from the University of Florida’s turfgrass breeding program. Stacie founded What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations in 2012.