STAYING COMMITTED
Commitments – Sticking To Them
We all know it’s hard staying committed…to anything really…especially working out. Life just seems to always get in the way. When life does end up giving us a break that’s exactly what we’d like to do with it – just break. Break from commitments, break from life, break from the world, break from the stress. Trust me, I get it. Breaks are amazing!
But to truly enjoy your break you’d first need to truly be committed right?
Commitments Make Life Happen – But Beware
Commitments, making them, and sticking to them is a big point of contention in my home. For one, I think my wife makes too many of them. Secondly, we don’t agree on which ones we should keep and which ones we shouldn’t so we keep almost all of them. For the most part commitments are a good thing, keeping us active and engaged with our community and loved ones. But just like most things in life, too many commitments can be a bad thing…a very bad thing.
Too many commitments can add unwanted, and, more importantly, unneeded stress to our lives. Nonetheless we all seem to fall victim to over-commitmentitus.
Taking Control of Your Commitments
Over-commitmentitus can happen in a matter of seconds…and dealing with it can cause both more commitments and more stress. Yeah, some feelings will be hurt, some friends might get a chip on their shoulders, or your family might get a bit upset, but SO WHAT?
So what if you cancel some commitments? It won’t be the end of the world. As a matter of fact, it might end up being very beneficial to you and your health. As mentioned in a previous post on this site – breaking commitments is AMAZING.
But, as amazing as breaking some commitments can feel, DO NOT BREAK ALL COMMITMENT that is a bad thing! The better thing to do is to try out my little trick.
The Trick To Keeping Commitments
The trick to keeping commitments is simple really. Are you ready? Here it comes…
Make them part of your life!
You see, if you make a commitment part of your life than it will no longer be a commitment – it will just be a part of your day. Yeah, I know most of you are probably thinking, “Uhm, duh!” But really, take a second to think about it. We all have a number of commitments but not all commitments are created equal, and more importantly not all commitments should be considered commitments.
What’s In A Word – Commitments vs. Plans
After 4 years of taking my kid to the sitters in the morning I no longer consider it a commitment – it’s just what I do.To me commitments are something that happen every once in a while…like plans…but important plans. So, commitments are like important plans if you will.
You see, due to the importance associated with commitments, it is easier and less taxing to cancel plans than it is canceling commitments. Canceling commitments puts a stain on your reputation and that’s serious stuff if you ask me.
Well, because the importance of commitments make them such a big deal, why not just make your most important commitments part of your life.
If you can make this happen all your other commitments either start to look more like plans or completely go away.
“Important” Commitments
Now, I know what may be an “important” commitment to one person may seem a bit trivial to another, but don’t let that discourage you. “Importance” is a personal metric that only you hold. So, see what’s most important to you and the people you most care about and forget what others might think.
This being said, I do believe “important” commitments are ones that relieve stress while promoting health, well being, and personal and professional advancement…but that’s as specific as I’ll get.
Commitments As Life
To be honest I only have 6 commitments I worry about…and these commitments make up my life.
- Husband,
- Father,
- Brother,
- Son,
- Friend, and
- Working Out
A lot of people used to give me a lot of crap for that last one, but working out has been a commitment of mine since I was 12 years old. I was a damn-chunky kid (as noted before on this site, always known as the “fat” twin) that had to take matters into his own hands, and when I did a lot of people very close to me gave me crap about it.
“You really ‘have’ to workout before you go to bed?”
“You really ‘cannot’ miss today’s workout?”
“You really going to wake up that early to workout?”
“You really aren’t going out tonight because you ‘need’ to workout tomorrow morning?”
The quotes are endless and lasted for about 5 years before my family and friends started to realize I was for real – exercise was no longer a commitment but truly part of my life.
The Point
The point I am trying to make here is that if you stick to your guns and truly make a commitment part of your life, no matter how trivial that commitment you want to make might be, your loved ones will come to realize and think of that commitment as part of you. Eventually everyone who cares about you will be okay and support you…even if it does take 5 years.
So, make your important commitments part of your life and you’ll never break another truly important commitment…because we don’t ‘break’ life…that is of course unless you are Breakin’.
By Rolando Rodriguez
