Is a Lack of Commitment Distracting You From Creating?

Without commitment, dreams fall by the wayside into the dust of a barren land, never to come to the realization of their fullest potential. Enthusiasm for a new idea is not commitment. Learning, researching, talking about an idea – all of which are valuable at some stage of making a dream come true – are not commitment – and can, in fact, become distractions.

H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951 said.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

          Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
          Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’

So What’s the Deal with Commitment?

What is it about commitment that causes us to procrastinate, distract, even ignore ideas/people/projects that once fired us up so?

There are of course the fears that are buried in our unconscious that are usually based on some erroneous, learned thinking, such as fear of being criticized/judged or failing. There can be fears of success too, such as How life will change? and Am I really ready for that, even though I think I want it?

But until we make that commitment our dreams struggle to manifest. There is an energy behind commitment that provides a power to steer through the obstacles and fears, that gives that dream a life of its own, sets it free to go out and find the mechanics and solutions needed to make things happen. The Pink Balloon technique helps to set dreams free.

Making a commitment means you have to take action. You can’t stay in the world of wishing and hoping! Dreams don’t come true that way. You have to face the fears as they arise. Commitment gives you the strength to do so. You find a way somehow.

Being Accountable

There are many ways to create accountability that help with commitment. A buddy system or a master mind group works well. Even though the final commitment must come from within, having others involved helps to get to that place.

A method I have found amazingly helpful is StickK. www.stickk.com/  Here’s how it works. You sign a Commitment Contract which is “a binding agreement you sign with yourself to ensure that you follow through with your intentions—and it does this by utilizing the psychological power of loss aversion and accountability to drive behavior change”.

You can have a referee to support you, someone you know or someone you don’t know, and you can invite friends and family to cheer you on. Or you can go it alone and make your commitment between you and Life Itself.

You can utilize the psychological power of loss aversion by committing a $ amount to either a cause you support or a cause you don’t support. StickK provides a list. I have found committing a $ amount to a cause I don’t support if I don’t follow through on my commitment, to be a very strong motivator. I learned the hard way to start small, with both the $ amount and the time frame. It is an EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE commitment process.

Are you rooted in the essence of Life Itself, in Presence?

There are two places from which ideas can spring. One is the mind. The mind can get very excited about an idea. It often isn’t until much further on, whether the idea has come to fruition or fallen by the wayside, that the realization dawns that there really isn’t the fulfillment there that you might have expected. If you do achieve it, you’re off to the next goal with a vague sense of hollowness. No – that wasn’t it – whatever’ it’ might be. Or maybe the dream just lies gathering dust in the attic of your mind with a bunch other great ‘mind’ ideas

The other place from which ideas can spring is being centered in Presence, in the essence of Life Itself. These ideas have a different feel to them; they may have a lot of passion or they may be quietly subtle but they persevere. They won’t go away. And when you make a genuine commitment to them, is when ‘providence moves too’.

So that’s a good place to check in with yourself. Is my idea from my Inner Being or is it from my mind? Life Itself will teach you the difference so look back on your experiences and you’ll see.

What about those fears?

They’ll come up, don’t worry. Life Itself will present you with opportunity after opportunity to look at those fears. Don’t suppress them or run away into some distraction or addiction when they come up. Simply allow them to be there, to teach you what you buried in the past, so you can release and let them go. Be willing to go through the withdrawal process in order to find the gold on the other side of being able to live your life from the essence you really are. Read about brain tracks here to remind yourself how it all works.

The Very First Commitment

Even more than a commitment to a dream, it vital to first make a commitment to living IN the Present Moment, to looking the Present Moment squarely in the eye, and saying, “What is it you would have me BE/DO/HAVE in this moment?”

THIS COMMITMENT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING AND THE MOST REWARDING. When you are rooted in the Present Moment, the stories of the mind take a back seat and Life Itself is free to flow through a clear mind. You learn to move out of the monkey mind and its eternal efforts at control, and to surrender to what is – complete with inspiration, solutions and awareness.

The more I can live in the Present Moment, the more I am aware of thinking that doesn’t belong. Then I am free to fully commit to a dream.

Staying Motivated

Here are a bunch of quotes I found online to do with commitment. They re-ignite my passion when I read through them – and one is sure to hit the issue of the day.

Take some action today to commit as opposed to thinking/talking about something that is important to you. Either set up a buddy system, a master mind group or join StickK, or at the very least, make a commitment to sit in the Present Moment for 15 minutes a day for a week with your focus clearly on something you want to create. And when that week is up, make another commitment. Your confidence will grow, along with your dream.

Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.