January 12, 2015

(day 16)

In full disclosure, I didn’t write a post yesterday.  I’m not going to make excuses;  I simply didn’t sit down and do it.   So what was missing?  What can I learn from my lapse?

The first place I look is to examine “what happened”?  As I reflect on the day’s activities, I see that I handled tasks and chores that needed to be done.  Immediately I see the problem.   While writing the post is important, I haven’t prioritized it as something that must be completed, or as I like to say, “it ain’t optional”.

Isn’t that typically the case, we say we’re going to do something, yet we allow other promises to take precedence.  What makes something – “not optional”?  What does it take to be intentional and follow-through?

Curved road

As I consider this question, the answer emerges.. “Commitment”

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions which speak louder than the words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.     Anon

Commitment demands that we put actions in place to support the promise.  What was missing yesterday was the absence of an established time to write.  I allowed the activities of the day to distract me from my promise.  I have declared this year to be the year of “Discovery, Discipline and Development”.  I’m learning that both my development and discipline depend on being more structured and deliberate.

As simple as it sounds, I’m now scheduling appointments with myself to write.   No guarantee that this is the solution, just a place to start with a goal of learning and discovering what works.   Being generous and kind with myself and not making myself wrong or inadequate, I can learn from my stumbles.  And in doing so, stay on the path of living my commitments.

So what commitments have you made… and do you have structures in place to support you?