I got up and went into to work on Saturday. I am finding more and more, that I am committing to things that I say I am going to do.
It is a discipline that is building and forming a habit, one which is starting to grow and grow.
The things is, in the past and until more recently, I have at times said that I was going to get something done and due to a number of factors, one especially being focus, often it didn’t get done or wasn’t done promptly. Focus is something that has always been hard for me.
All my life from whenever I can remember, until more recently, I have been easily distracted, which I think is due to the fact that I felt that there was always something better going on. Thus, if I didn’t stop and find out, then I might be missing something. I have learnt that it’s better to focus on what you’re doing and create your own ‘better things’.
This has carried on to a certain extent into adult life and the lack of focus has at time cost me dearly.
Doing this writing everyday on 750words.com has been a real winner, as it is a commitment and like everything in life, we have to be committed, whatever we are doing.
It isn’t all about work, it’s about life, as life and work are the same thing. Relationships take commitment, losing weight needs commitment, getting fit needs commitment, eating more healthily takes commitment and so on.
So for me doing this writing is having a massive effect on helping me to learn commitment in everything that I am doing. As the commitment thing grows, guess what you start to get more done and getting more done leads to better results. Better results gives you more confidence and so the cycle continues.
As you gain confidence you take on more and add in the commitment to that and guess what? you get more good results.
So for me it is all about challenging the gremlins, challenging the ‘truths’ that we tell ourselves in our head. I am on a mission to defeat those gremlins and replace them with positive auto-pilots in my brain, so that future good behaviour becomes automatic.
I was one of those people who used to believe that ‘leopards can’t change their spots’. However, I now believe (sounds like I’m some preacher!) that you can change almost anything if you are determined enough to do so.
So I have in the last 18-24 months dealt with many of these gremlins and like all of us, I have shied away from some of the more difficult ones, as I now deep down that these are going to be the toughest and they are some of the habits that I have had all my life.
One of the biggest ones that I have nailed in the last the 3-4 years was my habit of over eating, drinking too heavily and eating the wrong type of food.
That one was a BIG ONE and it has been hard, so hard. But now after many years, it is well and truly beaten, that gremlin, which I have had all my life, has gone. I used to comfort eat and drink, I used to eat mainly good quality food, but all the wrong things for health.
I have gone form nearly 23 stone to 15 1/2 in 4 years and gone from a XXXL to L and gone from a 44 inch waist to a 32. I have literally shrunk myself back to how I was in my mid to late 30’s.
I now know completely, that I will never go back to that life again. Occasionally now, I go ‘off the rails’,however, I immediately get back on it and it never has a chance to become a habit.
Now the one I have killed just recently, which wasn’t with me all my life, in fact, it came about in my early 40’s, when I’d lost all my self-confidence, was the over-thinking gremlin, which leads to indecision and inaction. Over-thinking is a bad one, as you end up talking yourself out of doing most things and that then kills your self-confidence further. As you say that you are going to do something, then the gremlins hijack that and help your ‘chimp’ brain to convince you not to do something. The longer you think, the less likely you are to do that thing.
So that one is gradually being dealt with and that is helping me massively grow the auto-pilot of commitment. Commitment helps with the curse of instant gratification, which is another issue.
I’ve grown up in world that has created/massively encouraged instant gratification and that is the antithesis of doing, as you will always opt for something ‘now’ without committing to building something sustainable for the future. So you are not prepared to sacrifice things for later gain.
The later gain, if you commit and sacrifice for long enough, is always better than the short-term now gain. This is because the compound effect builds momentum and that then creates something much more rewarding than anything you can get easily now.
Commitment is one of the biggest keys to success in life.
Philip Dodson 