Don’t Just Make New Year Resolutions, Make Long Term Commitments!
How often have you made new year resolutions and have actually stuck to doing them throughout the year?
That’s just something for you to ponder on!
You’re probably asking – “what’s really the difference between a Resolution and a Commitment?” – based on the subject of this post.
I reckon if you did a quick Google search, you would find a lot of articles on the differences between the two.
To save you the trouble, let me highlight the short definitions I picked from Google and then we’ll take it further from there.
Resolution: “a firm decision to do or not to do something”
Commitment: “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.”
Let’s work with these two highlighted words – “decision” and “dedication” – and use of them to deal with this subject.
Making Resolutions
When we make a resolution, what we are saying basically is that we have made a decision about something or someone.
It could be a decision to hit the gym every 6am, or a decision to cut off negative habits (or friends), etc. It is firm, purposeful, but it lacks a solid foundation (more on that below).
There’s always that spark of enthusiasm at the start, mainly because we have been programmed to think that the beginning of the year is the best time to make “life changing decisions.”
The problem with this is that it is often focused only on the individual, and what that means is that there’s hardly any form of accountability attached to it.
In other words, if we end up not carrying out our decisions, no one will hold us accountable and we can afford to make excuses as to why it wasn’t that important.
The bottom line is, resolutions are often temporary! That’s why I said they lack a solid foundation. Without a foundation, there’s no stability and continuity.
This is what makes most people fall short when it comes to actually carrying their decisions out in the real world.
On the other hand…
Being Committed…
This goes beyond just ourselves; it involves other people and/or things! We are more inclined to carry out the necessary activities to ensure our commitments are well catered for.
This is not fueled by just words or affirmations, but by a deeper understand of outcomes, which could put one in a very tough situation, should he/she fail to see things through.
By running a business, we are not only committed to seeing it thrive, but committed to providing the best products and/or services to our end users (clients/customers) as well.
We are also committed to our board members, investors, partners, associates, employees, and vendors (if any). This puts us in a position to uphold our reputation, and also propels us to dedicate our time to do what is necessary to keep things going the right way.
Even when things go the wrong way, we don’t waver because we made a commitment to make it work. We stand firm and keep going, because we are accountable.
To Conclude…
Commitment knows the road will be rough, but it’s willing to forge on; resolution often leans towards to easy aspects of the journey, and fades off in the face of any challenge.
If one must make a resolution, he/she must also commit to seeing it through.
Would you desert your business just because the resolutions you made the previous year were not fulfilled?
The best way (in my opinion) to go about it is to always think of the outcomes. Think about the cost of the “pain” you will feel, if you don’t see things through (i.e. you gave up at a critical time).
If one resolves to grow his/her revenue, then he/she knows he/she needs to put in the work and commit to it, otherwise his/her income will take a hit, and that’s not a tune one would like to dance to.
I hope this has been helpful.
Let me know how you have been dealing with this issue in your life and business by commenting below. Please share this post to your network as well using the social share icons below.
Thanks for reading.
Cover image credit – http://denisemarksblog.com/
