Are you committed?

There is a difference between being committed to doing a thing and making a commitment to doing a thing.  Do you know what it is?

Making a commitment is simply agreeing to do something. It is a verbal contract  between you and another person. You are telling them that a certain thing will occur, usually by a certain point. It is specific and measurable and definitely has the potential to be a powerful tool for mature responsible adults to use in getting things done.

Yet, if you are not committed to this agreement it is worthless and will most likely be broken. Perhaps you just agreed to make the other person happy and you really have no or very little interest in seeing this thing through. Maybe some challenge or obstacle will come up and you will decide that this thing is too hard or not worth the effort. Or you will be too busy or may be you will use the excuse of not feeling well to avoid keeping your word.

Being committed to a thing, on the other hand, is like a thing of beauty. It turns you into an unstoppable force of nature as far as that thing is concerned. When you are fully committed to something, no matter what it is, there is an almost palpable energy about you. There is never any doubt that you will do what it is that you say you will. You know inside yourself that no shit no kidding, no matter what, you will accomplish this goal. Nothing will get in your way. Obstacles and challenges have no chance of stopping or even really slowing you down. And anything that does get in your way you will steam roll right through until success is yours.

A commitment that you are truly committed to becomes a thing that you will accomplish or die trying. It is also the only commitment truly worth making. It is a guarantee. Everything else is just a maybe.

How does one become committed to a a goal rather than just making a commitment to see that goal happen? Just like every other important powerful thing that a person does or can do, it comes down to simply making a choice to do so.

You can agree to take the trash out after dinner or you can commit to it. When you agree, other things might get in your way. You might fall asleep at your chair or you might get caught up in watching the television and forget. When you commit nothing is getting in your way. After dinner you will get up and take out the trash.

You can make a commitment to stop being late to work or you can be committed to being on time from this day forward.  If you just make the commitment, you may oversleep or leave later than you are supposed to. If you are committed to being on time you will take whatever steps are necessary to get there on time.

You can promise yourself that you will start taking steps to improve your life or you can actually commit to doing so.