The shock (and magic) of commitment: Get more stuff done

For the last 20 years, life has been a whirlwind of car rides and shopping and laundry and doctors' appointments and emails and courses and projects and website problems and VA problems and on ... and on ... and on.

The hours and days speed by, as do the months, which turn into seasons, and the next thing I know, Spring turns into Summer turns in school days turns into Christmas. Over and over and over again.

As Ferris Bueller says...

I'm busy and watching the clock and micromanaging every hour trying to cram it all in. But still, things aren't getting done.

My health and energy are low. My weight is uncomfortably high.  

Something has to change.

The shock (and magic) of commitment

Enter my coach, Jim Fortin. 

I had a call with him yesterday, and we talked about how I never seem to have time for health stuff. Like walking on the treadmill.

"The answer," he said, "is commitment."

I just sat there, staring. (This was a Zoom call.)

"Commitment," he repeated. "You're living by the clock, but it's not working. You need to live by commitment instead."

I sighed. "What do you mean?"

"Are you committed to getting healthy?" he said. "Can you commit to walking on your treadmill every day, no matter what?" 

"No," I thought.

"I think so," I said.

He continued. "Right now, you're organizing your life around your business. Your business is here, in this huge bubble. And the treadmill -- and your health -- are over there, outside of it. What if you turned it around? What if you put the treadmill in the bigger bubble, and made everything else rotate around it?"

I sat there, speechless. I'm sure my mouth fell open.

Photo by Ehimetalor Unuabona on Unsplash

"Here's how to do it," he motored on. "Can you commit to walking on the treadmill, every day, no matter what?" 

I raised my eyebrows, squeezed out a tentative, "Yeeeeesssss....?"

Then he hit me with a bombshell. "Now--and this is crucial--you need to stop organizing your life around the clock, and organize it around your commitments instead."

WHOA.

Now THIS ... THIS blew my mind.

Our call continued but, inside, I was still mulling over commitment.

I thought about it all night.

And this morning, I decided YES, I am committed to my health, FFS!

YES! I would run the day based on my commitments, with the treadmill being top on the list. 

• Treadmill! (#1 commitment, do it in the morning)
• Pay bills!
• Do client work!
• Take care of my peeps in the Blogging Challenge!
• Write my own blog post (I'm working on it right now)!
• Update my homepage! (Maybe tonight; if not, first thing after the treadmill tomorrow)

Well. Would you look at that?!?  

I got stuff done today.

Important stuff.

And I didn't try to schedule it or watch the clock. 

I just worked on the things I was committed to doing.

Accountability + Commitment: The no-fail system

This seems to be a good system. But how do I know I'll keep it up?

Well, Jim is pretty sneaky. Not only did he have me voice my commitment to him; he also had me do a Facebook Live in our group, telling other change seekers what I had committed to doing. I also have to update the group via Facebook Live each week until the program is over.

I did the first Facebook Live yesterday.

And there is NO WAY I want to show up next week and say, "Well ... I kind of missed this day," or "I had a bad couple of days...."

NO WAY!

Like I said, I'm committed.

P.S. This is post #5 in my 30 Day Blogging Challenge!

P.P.S. Curious? Join my tribe to learn more!