Reframe Your Beliefs About Commitment

What are you committed to?nnAs you attempt to answer this question you may encounter some internal conflict or confusion. It’s the difference between what your head “thinks” and what your heart “knows” that causes this confusion.nnThis happens because your brain wants you to think you are committed to things of a higher ideal; things that support and enhance your growth but which, frankly, often merely massage your ego. Your mind thinks these things make you look good in they eyes of others.nnBut your heart knows when you’re brain is not being exactly honest with itselfnnSo the question becomes: how can you tell what you’re truly committed to?nnThe answer can be found by looking at two things: where you spend your time and where you spend your money.nnHere’s an example…nnYou “think” that you’re committed to being in shape, but when you look at how you spend your time and money in this arena, you quickly realize that you’re actually only committed to “wanting” to be in shape.nnIf you spend your time and money on books, DVDs and website membership programs on health and exercise but don’t actually spend any time exercising, your commitment is more towards “wanting to be” fit and healthy as opposed to actually “being” fit and healthy.nnSee the difference? Here’s another example:nnYou think you’re committed to your family and to creating the best life possible for them. To prove this you spend all your time working hard so that you can earn more money and provide the best things in life for them.nnWhere are you spending your time and money? At work and on “things” that you may subconsciously believe are necessary in order to be happy and to fulfill your family.nnIf this is true for you then it’s more than likely that the buying of things is also a subconscious to make up for your absenteeism.nnI use these two specific examples because they are very prevalent in today’s society. People spend more and more of their time and money on things that don’t really matter – at least not in the long run – and both their health and their relationships with other people suffer as a result.nnSo how do you go about aligning what your brain wants to be committed to and what your heart sees you actually being committed to? Begin to align your actions with your intentions.nnIf you want to be fit and healthy then make a commitment to exercise every day before work. If you want to be the best spouse, parent, sibling or child, make a commitment to spend time daily with the people in your life that matter to you.nnNow you may be thinking: “Exercise daily? I haven’t exercised at all, how can I commit to exercising daily? I’ll be setting myself up for failure before I even get started!”nnHere’s a tip that I use to install new habits into my routine which I think can work for you too:nnMake the commitment to exercise daily… but release having to make that “look” like something specific. Instead of thinking that “exercising daily” has to mean that you run for an hour or workout for 45 minutes at the gym each morning let it mean only what the words mean – exercise daily.nnIf you get up in the morning and are tired, feeling sick and just aren’t feeling like you can keep your commitment o do a run or lengthy workout, it is very easy to let yourself slide. But what if doing just five jumping jacks meant that you could fulfill your commitment to exercising today? Do you think you could do that?nnOf course you can! What about committing to spend quality time with your kids or spouse each and every day? Do whatever you need to do to make sure that you spend at least five minutes doing just that!nnWhen you alter your perception of the commitment you’re making it suddenly becomes very easy to keep your end of the bargain. Three or four weeks will have gone by and you’ll have exercised every single one of those days. Will you feel better because of those five jumping jacks? I’m going to suggest that you absolutely will. If not physically then at the very least you’ll feel better mentally.nnAnd on mornings when you wake up and feel energized, excited and have enough time, you’ll find that you will happily do 15, 20 even 50 or 100 jumping jacks – and that will definitely make you feel better physically, especially in the long term.nnCreating new habits, particularly positive ones, requires commitment on your part. To ensure success and build momentum towards even greater successes in the future, try simply reframing your idea of commitment and do one thing every day that takes you towards your goal.