10 ways to tune up your commitments

Photo by Sagar Rana on Unsplash

Great leaders and entrepreneurs make strong, inspired commitments and strive courageously toward them.

Commitment can seem a heavy word when we’re overworked, unclear on what we want or what’s most important.

I was unclear on my commitments when I first started my business. Drunk on freedom, I was a kid in a candy shop. Under high stress my goals became helium balloons. I let go and they flew off — I was alone and untethered.

Commitments root spectacular visions and audacious goals in our (new) identity. They answer the question, who do we need to be and what do we need to stand for now to create the future we want? They keep us strong, consistent and centered.

10 ways to tune up your commitments:

1. Work on your mindset and self-belief, so commitments come from a place of genuine desire versus a sense of lack or scarcity.
2. If they feel heavy, check in on your self care and/or connect regularly to the light side of them. While challenges and pains can be enormous, commitments in the end free us.
3. Create rituals. Devote time and attention where you can easily avoid distraction and temptation (a bit like meditation).
4. Find those who are similarly committed, who can stand for you when you lose your way, your pace or footing.
5. Take time to understand what they are (in words or images) and how they feel in your body. Passion is a renewable source of energy.
6. Create bold measures — from vision boards to KPIs and scorecards. Structure and positive performance stress build strength and help make inspiration reality.
7. Realize that the measures will change over time and place. Allow for the possibility of exceeding them.
8. For the love of life enjoy them please! Similar to #2, commitments become boxes or burdens when we see them as obligations or somewhere to get to. Commitments start with you. There’s no limit and there’s no ending.
9. Honor and acknowledge yourself first. It’s easy to lose ourselves in our passions. Create containers and supports to renourish and revitalize. Let yourself be human for a minute.
10. Stick to 4 or fewer, and minimize time on extras. Take heart that the harder this is, the more it’s helpful.

Bottom line: Take time to tune up/into your commitments, and you’ll become who you need to be to get where you want to.

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