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I've talked about goals that are never completed, but just roll from year to year. Most of us have done that more than we care to admit. But at the root of most unfinished goals is a lack of commitment and accountability.

Planning to do something makes us feel good. But actually doing it is hard work!

When we think of accountability, we often think of being accountable to our boss, our spouse, our friends. But do we realize that being accountable also applies to ourselves?

What's the point of setting a goal, or making a commitment, if you have no intention of ever achieving or honoring it?

In 1987, I graduated from college, had my first child, and started a home business. When people found out I was a stay-at-home mom, they knew that a lot of my time was not longer dictated by outside sources. But that didn't mean it wasn't being managed by inside sources. They misinterpreted discretionary time to be free time. But it wasn't. I had all sorts of plans and schedules and goals that kept me very busy.

At that time I realized that I simply had to value my own schedule for my own time just as much as if someone else were dictating the schedule to me. It didn't matter if other people didn't understand that. I did.

So when I'd get call after call after call asking me to take a dinner or babysit or drop everything for some cause, I became very selective about saying yes. I did try to help when I could, but I did not my goals and my family at the mercy of requests for my assistance.

If someone asked for help and the most important thing was to spend time with my daughter or husband, I simply said, “I'm very sorry, I have an appointment at that time.”

It doesn't have to be an appointment with the POTUS or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. An appointment to play checkers with my daughter is just as important. In fact, more important.

When you set out to achieve a goal, realize that the commitments we make to ourselves are just as important as those we make to others.

The interesting thing is that once you take your own commitments, schedules, plans seriously, others will as well. And you will find you have much more time to devote to the outside causes that are truly meaningful to you.

Join me in the 100 Day Challenge!

Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.