Deception Pass, WA, September 21, 2017
I was deep in a conversation with a friend the other night about my book and how it took me 5-6 years to complete when she asked me, “What does commitment mean to you?”
Perhaps it was the wine, because even I was surprised by the swiftness of my reply.
“Commitment is marrying an idea with a vision and following through.” It was a thought that must have made a home somewhere in my biology and surfaced through the chemistry of thought, because I had no idea where it came.
“So the bridge is the follow through,” she mirrored.
“Yes,” I replied.
“The bridge is the commitment and that makes the commitment the structural element.”
“That sounds right.”
“You could say then that commitment is built brick by brick of mini commitments, yes? That creates the structure?”
“Yes,” I agreed again.
“So to build a bridge of commitment, you have to start with one brick,”
“Yes.”
“And then you lay another brick of commitment.”
“Yes.”
“And another.”
“Yes.”
“You get it. So let me throw another idea out at you.”
“Ok.”
“Would you agree then it’s not about being clear on the commitment—it’s about actually becoming the commitment?”
Deception Pass, WA, September 21, 2017
“Yes,” I replied again, following the carrot she kept dangling just out of reach.
“So I want you to think about this. With commitment, there’s an idea that we lose an element of our freedom…but at the same time, we gain our dreams.” She closed her eyes and continued.
“Our dreams represent our purpose and vision, so to see them we have to be present—we have to be in the present moment. That means we need to surrender the idea or belief that we are losing an aspect of freedom when we commit to something. Instead, what we actually need to realize is it’s through commitment that we achieve our purpose, goals, dreams, and vision. I think if we live in that space of commitment, we actually are free. That is what it means to be commitment.”
January 29, 2018