Commitment

It’s not that we’re not able to do things, it’s that if we want to do them well we must make sacrifices.

We can do as many things as we like during a period to discover what we like, but once we discover what we like, one must make sacrifices in order to master what they decide to do.

Making a commitment to people is allocating our time and resources to create an outcome, it’s a promise we cannot break unless we’re to sully our relationship. Our word is our bond.

To live up to our word, we must then realign our life around what we commit to. This is a great thing, to be aligned with a specific outcome, though more troublesome when what we commit to isn’t on our path.

To commit to one activity and then become great at it, is to restrain oneself to one journey.
For a generalist like me to specialize, it means to give up just that, the identification that I’m a ‘generalist’. A label that has served me well while searching for myself and what I like. To have a wide panel of things to taste and try. It means that in order to become great at something one must cut off from all other possibilities and trust that what they are engaging in will work out.

A commitment is “an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action.“, and who says restriction also makes the decision to become narrow and laser focussed. To commit to an activity is to unscatter yourself and simplify your life to allocate all of your resources to one outcome and discard anything that isn’t that. The Latin word Decision literally means, “to cut off.” Making a decision is about “cutting off” from choices – cutting you off from some other course of action that had nothing to do with the outcome you have chosen. A little like in the movie “Divergent” where one chooses a faction.

Making a commitment to someone means that you’re choosing to allocate your effort and attention to them during the time it takes to fulfill your contract to them. Although, there is a contract, as subtle as it seems, and it needs to be fulfilled. If your Signatory has not relinquished you from your promise, you are not free. This type of pact is what distinguishes you from the wishy-washy swindlers out there, as a trust-worthy person people can rely on. And people want to be able to rely on you. No one wants to be decieved.

More importantly, making a decision is to make your life easier. To simplify decision-making means to have more energy, but also to cut off from things that aren’t necessary. So my questions to you, and to myself are:

-> In the next 3-5-10 years what are you striving to achieve?

-> Do your current actions validate your vision?

-> What isn’t essential in your life? What is a distraction? What is in the way of your progress?

-> What are the best practices to achieve results (for me & related to my decision)?

-> What actions of mine make sense/don’t make sense?

-> Are the people around me, the environment, my mindset, and focus, aligned with what I’m striving to accomplish?