3 Ways to Keep Your Commitments
Once we count the cost and are willing to pay the price, then our commitment becomes something we make a daily decision to keep. We have a friend that has run marathons and she shared with me that it is about mile 20 or 21 that one’s resolve begins to give out. The sheer exhaustion of putting one foot in front of another for mile after mile becomes almost too much to bear. From that point on it becomes a step by step decision to keep going and finish the race. There are times when we make a commitment and we don’t feel like following through. It is then that we have to make a day by day or hour by hour commitment to keep going. And because we are leaders with integrity, we keep doing what we made the commitment to do. But how do we do that, especially when we are tempted to quit? Here are three things that help our commitment:
Make the Choice every day
One of things that I don’t enjoy doing is exercising. I really don’t get joy from going to the gym and running on the treadmill or doing the elliptical. I don’t get jazzed about lifting weights or stretching. However, when we moved to Texas I made the commitment to exercise at least 2 times a week at the gym. I paid the money and then a few weeks in, I got one morning and said, “You know, I really don’t feel like going to the gym. I think I will stay home in bed.” But then I remembered that commitment that I made and I drug myself out of bed, put my gym clothes on and drove to the gym. And after keeping that commitment to work out, I was happy because I made the choice to follow through on my commitment. Even now, almost 4 years later, there are mornings when I am tempted to stay home, but my choice is to go to the gym and exercise. There will be times when you don’t feel like keeping your commitment but reminding yourself of the choice today to keep your commitment, you will more than likely follow through. John Maxwell points out, “Your choices are the only thing you truly control. You cannot control your circumstances, nor can you control others. By focusing on your choices, and then making them with integrity, you control your commitment. And that is what often separates success from failure.” [1]
Stay focused on the big picture
One of the things that keeps me going to the gym week in and week out is that I see that it is a means to an end. I know that now that I have crossed that 40 year old threshold, it is important to be healthy (which by the way is what we will be talking about next month). I recognize every time I look down at my belly that I need to lose some weight and one of the ways to lose that weight is to exercise on a regular basis. So when I am tempted to give up and say, “I am quitting the gym because I don’t enjoy it”, I remember why I am going to the gym. As you look at the commitment you made you need to keep stay focused on the big picture. Maybe you have lost sight what the big picture is when it comes to the commitment. Step back and think about why you are doing what you are doing. Then when you don’t feel like following through, you can step back and see the big picture as to why you are keeping your commitment.
Get a cheerleader
One of the reasons that I have kept going to the gym is because I have a group of guys that I meet to play racquetball. I know if I don’t go, I know I am going to hear about it. And so when I am tempted to stay home and not go to the gym, I hear them giving me a hard time for not showing up. In their own way, they are cheering me on. Find someone in your life that can help “cheer” you on when it comes to keeping your commitment. Find a person that cares about you and will cheer you on when you are tempted to throw in the towel and not follow through on your commitment. It could be your spouse, or a friend or relative. Whoever it is let them be your cheerleader who spur you on to keep your commitment.
As leaders, we need to have integrity and keep those commitments we have made to ourselves and others. While there will be times when it is hard work to follow through and we feel like giving up, keep these 3 tips in mind so you can be the successful leader who is known as someone who keeps the commitments they made.
“To bring one’s self to a frame of mind and to the proper energy to accomplish things that require plain hard work continuously is the one big battle that everyone has. When this battle is won for all time, then everything is easy.” Thomas A. Buckner.
Conversation
What areas of your life to you have the hardest time following through on your commitments?
Who are the people in your life who are your "cheerleaders"?
[1]John Maxwell, Today Matters, 167.