The power of commitment

10 May 2012

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I made a 30-day blogging commitment with my friend, Shannon Wilkinson. We each vowed to blog daily, Monday through Friday, for at least 30 days.

It’s been great. I don’t know if you noticed, but I haven’t missed a day. And there have been a few days that I definitely would not have blogged (like right after I sprained my ankle last week), if it weren’t for the commitment.

Today is one of those days. I forgot to blog. (Rather, I thought about it several times during the day, but I was busy doing other things and didn’t make it a priority.) At 9 pm I was in the living room watching TV and was not interested in going back downstairs and getting my computer. I even decided to skip achieving my usual daily inbox zero.

But then I remembered the blog post. And my commitment to Shannon. And there was no way I was going to back away from that commitment.

So here I am blogging. I don’t think I can have too many of those commitments going at any given time, but a strong one like that is really valuable. And guess what, since I was back at my computer, I went ahead and got my inbox down to zero.

Is there something you’d like to do on a regular basis that you could make a commitment to do? Do you have an accountability partner who will notice if you fail to meet your commitment? Don’t overlook the power of commitment!

Tagged with: blogging, commitments, habits, shannon wilkinson, writing

Comments

Congratulations to sticking to your commitment. It may just be semantics, but in answer to your question about whether there’s something we’d like to do on a regular basis that we could commit to doing — the problem is in the premise. If it were something we’d like to do, we’d do it. I’d wager that if it’s something we need to commit to doing, it’s not something we’d like to do, it’s something we’d LIKE TO HAVE DONE.

The things we enjoy rarely require a formal commitment; the things we know are good for us (physically, mentally, in business, in relationships), we may do, we may even excel at doing, but if we require a formal pact, even with ourselves, to accomplish it, it’s probably lacking one or more element(s) that would make the doing (rather than the “having done”) fulfilling.

Julie Bestry May 10, 2012 11:16 PM

You’re such a thinker, Julie. Thank you for your comment. You’re absolutely right, though I think that many of us don’t even allow ourselves to do enjoyable things regularly (out of guilt about less enjoyable things we should be doing, perhaps). But those probably aren’t the kinds of things I was asking about with that question.

I think a better phrasing—a tiny modification, but perhaps an important one—might be, “Is there something you’d like to be doing on a regular basis…” I don’t enjoy exercising, but I definitely want to do be doing it on a regular basis, for the sake of my health. It definitely requires a commitment.

What do you think?

Janine Adams May 11, 2012 05:16 AM

Oh, you certainly didn’t have to change the language. :-) But I think your revision, especially with the exercise example, probably reflects reality a bit more, and I have a sneaking suspicion, at least with my own ability to change my behavioral style, that the new phrasing would make me more likely to stay committed. (Or maybe I just need to be committed, white coats and all!)

Julie Bestry May 11, 2012 08:24 AM

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