On Monday, I said that a dream is just a nice idea until you commit & take action. And that got me thinking more about the c word: commitment.
Let’s talk about Commitment for a minute.
After many false starts (on this blog, on my exercise routine, on diets, on… well, lots of stuff), I’ve realized that commitment is active.
It’s not a one time thing. When you stand next to your honey and say “I do”, your commitment does not end there. You wake up every day and commit to your marriage, whether you realize it consciously or not.
When you commit to losing weight, you have to make a choice and commit at every meal and whenever a workout time comes up.
And when you commit to your dream, to your remarkable life, to YOU, you have to do it every day.
But Patricia… that sounds like work.
Well… Yes and No.
On the one hand, it may take effort at first to stay the course, to recommit over and over, to really OWN IT.
On the other hand, when your effort is directed toward the thing that lights you up from within (aka your dream/passion/purpose/values/resonant hobby), it rarely feels like work.
Effort, yes. Work, no.
The effort might even feel really hard sometimes, like for me today, my gremlins woke up shouting at me. And it took real effort to recommit myself to keep moving forward, making my dream happen (a big part of which is writing this blog & connecting with you).
But now that I’m doing it, it does NOT feel like work. In fact, I feel content & full (not drained and empty like after a long day of work).
I experienced something similar the other day–was feeling a bit stuck on creating my newest rendition of my business vision, and my gremlins took the opportunity to try and make up stories about what that stuckness “said about me.”
While my old patterns would have had me continue sitting there, trying to figure out what was wrong with me, I made the effort to make a shift to something else. I went outside for a walk, and within 5 minutes I was breathing in fresh air, grinning at the little kids squealing on the swinging tire in the park, and feeling the sun on my face. And I remembered…what lights me up is being among people, and helping them wake up to the simple beauty of their existence.
Commitment to moving forward made all the difference!