Would you like to succeed when dieting instead of being yet another person who has failed? Would you like to become a successful businessman instead of a wannabe entrepreneur? Would you like to become a world-class performer instead of a mediocre jack-of-all trades? It all starts with committing yourself to the process and having an unwavering belief your plan is going to work out. Dieting is a perfect example of how powerful commitment is. In a paper written by Rena R. Wing and Suzanne Phelan, the authors point out that despite “a general perception that almost no one succeeds in long-term maintenance of weight loss, research has shown that ≈20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least 1 year.” They also cite the example of the members of the National Weight Control Registry who have lost an average of 73 pounds (33 kg) and maintained the loss for more than 5 years. Their secret? Commitment. These individuals reported engaging in high levels of physical activity (on average at least one hour a day), eating a low-calorie diet, monitoring their weight, and maintaining a consistent eating pattern across weekdays and weekends. There was nothing magical about their diets. As the authors of the paper emphasize, after these individuals have successfully maintained their weight loss for 2–5 years, the chance of longer-term success is greatly increased. What happens in those two to five years that makes the success more likely? It’s the moment when you develop long-term self-discipline, which is the result of following your plan day in, day out. When I was 21, I was over 30 pounds overweight. When I finally realized I couldn’t go on like that, I picked a diet that made sense to me and stuck to it for several months. It was the first time I tried losing weight. I learned the guidelines and followed them to a T – including the mandatory cheat day at the end of every week (and mind you, I took it seriously; you wouldn’t believe the amount of food I inhaled each cheat day and still lost weight every single week). Unlike the majority of first-time dieters, I was successful right away. I didn’t have to try ten different diets. I achieved my goal in about three months. I never went back to my old physique again.