Why You Should Always Over-Obsess and Over-Commit to Your Goals

The following is adapted from Twenty-Five Hours A Day by Nick Bare.

My life has been defined by discipline and commitment. I grew up in Central Pennsylvania, surrounded by incredibly hardworking people who rose before the sun every day, regardless of what their mind or body wanted to do.

Then, I committed to four years of active duty in the U.S. military and pushed myself through Ranger School, which is one of the most grueling courses in the world. The levels of exhaustion and stress are the closest a soldier can experience to wartime conditions without actually being at war.

Finally, I started a wildly successful entrepreneurial venture from my small college apartment and grew it from a one-room army barracks in South Korea.

I’ve learned that setting goals in life isn’t enough. It’s not even enough to commit to them. You have to over-obsess on them and over-commit to them to make your goals a reality. Whether it’s building a business, surviving a 150-mile ruck march, or learning about fitness and the industry of fitness, my ability to clear my head of distractions and to over-commit and obsess on my goals, has fueled every ounce of success I’ve achieved. Read on to learn why.

The Power of Singular Focus

Ranger School was one of the hardest things I’ve ever endured. It’s a demanding experience, filled with entire days full of pain and misery. There are long marches, intense simulations of raids and ambushes, a constant drumbeat of up-tempo operations. By the end, I was tired, and every fiber of my being desired nothing more than to be done with the misery.

So how did I keep driving forward toward the light of success even when I seemed to be surrounded by darkness and the looming possibility of failure? I over-obsessed and over-committed. Finishing the course, and earning the coveted “Ranger Tab” to wear on the left shoulder of my uniform, meant so much to me. I thought of pinning that tab to my uniform every single day.

I realized that I would see Ranger School through to the end no matter what, and it was a graduate-level education in commitment. I learned to apply a singular focus and eliminate anything that distracted me from my mission.

There were no distractions in Ranger School. There were no breaks, no days off, no nights out on the town. You were there to learn how to be one of the best small-unit infantry leaders in the world, trained in the harshest classroom imaginable, and that was all you were there to do.

The outside world ceased to exist. When I awoke, the only thing on my mind was, “Let’s get through today. Let’s pass our patrol. Let’s pass this phase and move on to the next one.” From the moment I awoke until the moment I went to sleep (if we got any that day), there was literally only this one thing on my mind.

To this day, that was a foundational piece of who I am. It taught me how the power of focus and over-commitment. If I managed to push through Ranger School, I could manage to push through any hardships I faced.

Dedication Is Stronger Than Credentials

When I started Bare Performance Nutrition, I didn’t come to the industry with a Harvard degree. I hadn’t done any crazy internships. No one had hired me in a high-profile company. What I did have was a strong work ethic. I knew the way to overcome gaps in education or experience was simply to challenge myself and work harder than anyone else.

When I arrived in South Korea for my unit rotation, Bare Performance was struggling to scale. It was making between $2,000 and $3,000 per month, and my goal was to hit $10,000 per month by the time we rotated back to the US in nine months. By over-committing, over-obsessing, and sticking to that schedule, I built the brand and managed to reach my goal in just three months.

I had lots of free time. Many soldiers spent that downtime playing video games, watching television, streaming movies, or hitting the bars (when we weren’t on lockdown). Not me.

I committed to spending every waking hour outside of work to building Bare Performance Nutrition. I read books on business and marketing, listened to podcasts, taught myself video editing, photography, videography — anything and everything to build my brand.

On a typical day, I’d wake up at 4 a.m. and spend 2.5 hours talking to U.S. manufacturers and customers, then I would go to physical training and fit YouTube filming in between tasks. Once the work day ended at 5 p.m., I’d grab my camera equipment, watch online courses on digital marketing, and write handwritten thank-you cards for customers. At 12:30 a.m., I’d finally drift off to sleep.

Once I accepted that I was entering a competitive environment without all the credentials some of my competitors possessed, I had to ask myself, how do I get better? My answer: do more difficult things to make me a stronger person. Over-obsess and over-commit.

Discipline and Commitment Keep You Going

When I started my company, even before the years and years of struggle and especially after I’d been discharged, I consciously flipped a switch in my mind. That switch committed me to the discipline it would take to grow and run this business I’m so passionate about, even when it would have been much easier to shut it down and try something else, or go to work for someone else.

Instead, I flipped the switch then broke it, ensuring that I could never turn it off. I’ve just kept going. The company is always on my mind. I’m constantly thinking about it. Always hungry for more success. I saw what I wanted to be.

The best thing about a company like mine is that it’s a passion that never has to end. Most big things in peoples’ lives have expiration dates. Projects are completed. Degrees begun then awarded. There’s a beginning and an end, and after that end you often have to reinvent yourself and find the next big thing. For me, I didn’t face any of that. My company has no expiration date. It’s given me this forever-fulfilling passion project into which I can pour my time, resources, and money. It’s made me very happy.

Over-Commitment Fuels Even Bigger Goals

Once you find the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, that makes you excited to greet each new day, over-commit to that passion. Over-obsess on it. Embrace the things about your journey that are going to be hard, and be ready for obstacles. Be ready for bad advice from people you love and respect. They can’t see your vision the way you see it. Only you can do that.

By the time I left South Korean, I’d hit my target, but I didn’t stop to smell the roses. By the time we’d hit the goal, I’d already set my sights on another one. That’s how it should work. By the time you arrive at a goal, you should already have new ones in place. I never let myself think, “we’ve made it!” Truth is, you’re never really there.

Here’s the thing about finding your passion, about finding and doing the thing you know you were meant to do: once you know it, you’ve got to go all-in. Full throttle. That means that you never get complacent. That means that you’re never really done. Over-committing and over-obsessing mean that there will always be bigger, better, and harder goals to reach. It’s an endless evolution.

For more advice on committing to your goals, you can find Twenty-Five Hours A Day on Amazon.

Nick Bare is the founder and president of Bare Performance Nutrition, a seven-figure supplement company with a focus on high-quality products. Nick has a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, served four years active duty as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and completed US Army Ranger school. He completed a 150-mile ruck march to not only raise money for Hurricane Harvey victims, but also test his mental and physical strength. Nick, who lives in Austin, Texas, has built a community of hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.