Category: commitment

You Don’t Get Back The Days You’ve Wasted

You Don’t Get Back The Days You’ve Wasted

One by one I dropped them into the raging fire, each book a 90 day period of my life now consumed by the flames.

Once a year I’ll gather up the four quarterly planners I’d used to map out the previous year of my life. These books – part planner, part journal – have become important tools in keeping me aligned with the intentions I set for myself.

Prior to surrendering them to the fire, I’ll go back through each book one final time. Old planners are a great source of introspection where reviewing them tells me quite a bit about who I was for that 90 day segment of my life.

Some quarters were full of vibrant alignment with the goals I had set for myself. Some quarters had a great number of blank pages where no daily intentions were set or recorded. 

The blank pages have always taught me the most important lessons.

Each of those blank pages represented an opportunity to create, to grow, to live in alignment with Continue reading “You Don’t Get Back The Days You’ve Wasted” →

On The Days You Really Don’t Want To

On The Days You Really Don’t Want To

I was looking forward to it all day.

Nothing.

As in doing nothing when I finally got back home.

Life can get rather busy, can’t it? Commitments, obligations, and responsibilities can collectively get quite heavy at times. But on this night, there was nothing to carry.

The start of the year marked a re-commitment to taking care of my physical self. A recent series of ailments and injuries sidetracked my exercise efforts for the better part of a year, and now I was determined to get back on track. 

I mapped out a schedule, I knew what I was going to do, and I started doing it.

But this night was a welcomed night off. 

Until I remembered it wasn’t.

While relaxing and decompressing, excited that I’d be able to get to bed a bit earlier than usual, Continue reading “On The Days You Really Don’t Want To” →

The Best Life Hack Is No Hack At All

The Best Life Hack Is No Hack At All

I’m fairly certain he didn’t notice me.

He was too busy making things happen.

In a rare moment of sitting down and relaxing I spied a spider diligently working spinning his web. Back and forth he went from the light fixture by the back door and up to the gutter creating an ever growing and symmetrical network of whatever spiders make their webs out of. 

It was fascinating to watch the process of how he patiently and intentionally created his work of art. What I saw as art, he saw as something far more practical and essential to his survival. 

If there were any short cuts to building a web, I don’t believe this spider was aware of them. His task looked pretty straight forward, perhaps even repetitive and monotonous. He knew what he needed to do and he simply did it.

Us humans are often inundated by so-called influencers and self-annointed experts trying to sell us their short cuts and ways to hack the system. Some will tell us that all we need to do is Continue reading “The Best Life Hack Is No Hack At All” →

Embracing The Discomfort Of Commitment

Embracing The Discomfort Of Commitment

“It’s like running from Boston to Dallas.”

Julie is a dedicated fitness and wellness professional, and as a personal trainer running has become important to her. She shared that this past week she set a personal record for miles run in a week. Annualized, that total would cover 1,768 miles, the distance from Boston to Dallas.

“That is crazy!”

I sense that people fully committed to meeting their goals encounter that word often. Crazy. Those who show up daily, driven, fueled by a vision others can’t see nor even understand, those with zero tolerance for excuses, those willing to hold themselves accountable for the commitments they have made, especially the ones they’ve made to themselves. Behavior like this is for the most part unordinary, dwelling outside the realm of what is considered “normal” which can then easily be categorized as crazy.

But it’s never labeled as such by others also honoring their own commitments. Because they know what personal commitment demands and they forge ahead anyway.

It’s never the easiest path.

Life give us a choice as to how we decide to live it. We can take what comes our way, or we can Continue reading “Embracing The Discomfort Of Commitment” →

Life Lessons From A Brick Oven Pizza

Life Lessons From A Brick Oven Pizza

It was the best pizza I’ve ever had.

And I’ve eaten a lot of pizza.

Pizza has somehow become rather important to me. I’ve baked my fair share of pies and I’m always trying to improve my results, often reverse engineering each bite of my favorite pizzas to try and uncover the secrets hidden inside. Having done my best to befriend my server she eventually revealed the four ingredients used to make the dough which I hoped to replicate at home.

“Flour, water, salt, and yeast” is what she told me.

“And…time.”

Time. An often overlooked ingredient. Time is what’s needed for flour, water, salt, and yeast to come together and fully develop their flavor profile. While some may try to manipulate the process, like most things in life the best results usually can’t ever be rushed.

Ours is a world at odds with patience. It’s a world which rewards the immediate, even if the immediate is inferior to what could instead be more fully developed if given the time to do so.

As I’ve worked to more fully evolve in life, I’ve come to understand that my evolution is a process, a process which takes time. At times I, too, am at odds with patience, trying to force a process which Continue reading “Life Lessons From A Brick Oven Pizza” →

Sometimes Commitment Hurts

Sometimes Commitment Hurts

Meloxican.

15 milligrams once per day.

“That’s should help with the inflammation.”

I’d never taken Meloxicam before. But I’d never been in such pain. A perhaps-overly-ambitious 10k run through the streets of my hometown eventually lead to a doctor’s visit. The tightness on the inside of my right knee kept getting tighter, especially when I finally finished my run. Walking had become an unexpected casualty as I hobbled my way back to the car.

Ouch.

I’ve run this particular course several times, although it had been a little while since I’ve done so. I wasn’t as prepared as I had hope to be, but I did commit to running this run and I decided to honor that commitment.

Sometimes commitments hurt.

I’ve got a good relationship with commitments these days. Especially with the commitments I make to myself. Those were the types of commitments I had a hard time keeping. One of the most significant growth milestones I’ve achieved upon my meandering life’s journey was embracing those promises I would make to myself. I was no longer willing to let myself down. I deserved better from me for me.

Commitments are a vital component of growth. Without it there is no growth.

Sometimes commitments do hurt. Growth often comes with a price, and often that price is pain. With my run, the pain was decidedly physical. But growth can come with emotional pain as well. Some may not understand the process you’re willing to put yourself through in order to achieve a goal Continue reading “Sometimes Commitment Hurts” →