By Gary danko
Commitment is the act of binding yourself intellectually or emotionally to a course of action. It is a necessary component of success in any endeavor, and it is probably the most misunderstood, or at least the most neglected component in the lives of most people.
If you have ever wondered why the people who truly succeed in their lives are so few in ratio to those who fail, you really do not have to look much farther than commitment. In other words, how well can a person commit to something and stay committed? Can he carry something all the way through to a done regardless of obstacles that pop up in his path? Or, does he give up and go in another direction the moment something doesn't go as planned?
Inevitably, you will find that the person who is constantly choosing new paths is the one who will be found to be struggling through life...failing. Conversely, you will find that it is the person who sticks with a chosen path, pushes through all obstacles, and makes things go right that tends to succeed most regularly.
The problem with home business opportunities such as network marketing, direct selling opportunities, and Internet affiliate programs, is that there are way too many of them and the up-front financial commitment is way to small. There is an old saying that says, "If you wallet isn't in it, your heart isn't in it." What this means in its simplicity is that if there is a large financial outlay to start a business, the owner is much more apt to "stick it out" and work harder towards solving problems that get in the way rather than throwing in the towel and giving up.
What really occurs is that when a person has made a large financial investment he or she tends to stand by the investment through thick and thin. It is much more difficult to walk away from.
I'm not encouraging you to make a large financial commitment to your business. The point I'm getting at is that you need to learn to be committed to your own decisions. It shouldn't take a threat of loss of money or anything else to enforce a commitment. If it does, then it is not truly a commitment. This has a lot to do with personal integrity. If I make a commitment to a business, I'm making a commitment to myself. If I break that commitment, I'm letting myself down...and that hurts.
Every time you let yourself down, you weaken yourself to that degree. Each time you allow yourself to walk out on a commitment in any part of your life, it becomes easier to walk out the next time, and the next time, and the next time, until you finally get to the point where you can't even keep a simple appointment with your doctor. And yes...it really does get this bad. In fact, lack of commitment is right now an International pandemic.
Lack of commitment is a much larger problem than AIDS, the Swine Flu, Heart Disease, or even Cancer. It affects many more people than any of these, and I would even venture to say that it even plays a larger role in death than all of these put together. How is that for a bold statement?
Transgressions against yourself and others cause stress. In case you don't know, a "transgression" is a sin. It is something you do that you shouldn't do or something you should have done but didn't do...and you will never "let yourself off the hook" until you eventually take full responsibility for having done or not having
done that something. I'm not talking about responsibility as "fault". I'm talking about responsibility as "cause".
Whether you know it or not, you cause things to happen in your life. They don't "just happen". You either cause things to happen, or you become the effect of things that others cause. But the only way you can become an effect, is by choosing not to be cause. Therefore, it's all on you. Feeling comfortable now?
Actually, all commitment is, is the agreement to cause something to happen, or to cause something to continue to happen, or to cause something to stop happening.
Once you agree to cause something to happen, you START that process into motion. Now, unless you push through and cause the motion to continue under YOUR control, you will become the effect of that motion sure as the sun rises every morning.
In other words, as long as you remain true to yourself, and hold to your commitments, things remain under your control. You are cause over them. If you are cause over them, you will not become the adverse effect of them. As long as you continue to learn and grow, you will discover how to solve the problems that come up.
Commitment has everything to do with the willingness and ability to confront and solve problems...and problems WILL come up. Treat them as challenges. Don't allow them to stop you. Don't give in and walk away because once those problems have exposed themselves, they will continue to show up over and over again in your life in various ways until you do take responsibility for them and resolve them.
My challenge to you is to take a look at the commitments you have made in your life. Write them down...every one of them. Now take a look at the list and check off the ones you have kept and made good on. After that, take a look at the ones that are left and see what you can do to make good on them now.
From this day forward, make the decision to stick with commitments you make. If you do not intend to keep a commitment, simply do not make the commitment.
When you make a commitment, stick with it through good times and bad, through any problems or challenges that crop up, through thick and thin, until you figure out how to make it go right.
Believe me...you have it within you to make ANYTHING go right as long as you are truly committed to do so.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment