Tweet

Sneaking Up On Commitment

Guest post by: Brad Swift

Article Overview: Forever can be a long time. For many of us the idea of committing to something forever can be very intimidating and bring us a lot of fear in recognition of our past failures. This was certainly the case when my wife and I first met. One of my fondest early recollections of Ann was during a workshop on Prosperity Money when we first met. One of our assignments was to list 100 things we wanted to do, be or have. Ann was sharing with one of the participants in the hallway prior to our workshop. I overheard her say that on her list were two items: a committed relationship and a romantic relationship. As a way to enter into the conversation I asked her why those were 2 separate items. Wasn't it possible to have a committed and a romantic relationship as one?

Sneaking Up On Commitment

Forever can be a long time. For many of us the idea of

committing to something forever can be very intimidating and

bring us a lot of fear in recognition of our past failures.

This was certainly the case when my wife and I first met.

One of my fondest early recollections of Ann was during a

workshop on Prosperity Money when we first met. One of our

assignments was to list 100 things we wanted to do, be or

have. Ann was sharing with one of the participants in the

hallway prior to our workshop. I overheard her say that on

her list were two items: a committed relationship and a

romantic relationship. As a way to enter into the

conversation I asked her why those were 2 separate items.

Wasn't it possible to have a committed and a romantic

relationship as one?

I then made it a point to sit next to her in class since

they were also items on my list. A few weeks later after

going out on numerous dates, I told her that I was ready for

a committed romantic relationship and asked if she was as

well.

As I recall she physically began to back up. She said whoa,

whoa, whoa -- not so fast! If she was any good at committed

relationships she'd still be married to her first husband.

Having gone through 2 divorces of my own, what she said

really resonated with me. Thinking fast on my feet I made a

counter offer. Would she be willing to try a 24 hour

committed relationship? She was not sure if I was being

serious. I said I was totally serious. Why didn't we try for

a 24 hour committed relationship since that time period

seemed pretty doable. So we agreed.

The next day, 24 hours later, I called Ann and congratulated

her. She asked for what. I told her for her first successful

committed relationship. I declared this one complete. Then I

continued. Would she like another try at a committed

relationship? How about one for 48 hours? Forty-eight hours

wasn't that much longer than 24 hours, so she agreed.

Sure enough we made it through the 48 hour one and also a 72

hour committed relationship. What we decided next was to

take on a much longer stretch of time. We both registered to

go to a 5 day retreat and program together. The entire trip

would take 10 days, so we committed to staying committed for

10 days.

Mid-way through the workshop we were pretty sure that it was

a bad idea. The workshop was the type that had you really

look at the duck side of your life, the stuff that still

needed to be worked on in your soul. Neither of us were real

thrilled with showing that side of ourselves to the other

person. However, we hung in there and by the end of the

program we announced to the entire group that we were

committed to a 6 month relationship.

Upon this announcement there was a sigh of disappointment

from the other participants who had been anticipating that

we would declare our intentions of committing for life.

However, as we sat down, the program leader stood up and

acknowledged us for our authentic commitment saying that so

often in life forever commitments are made without ever

really considering what they mean. Making an authentic

commitment for the next 6 months showed true integrity.

Towards the end of the first 6 months we made a commitment

for another 6 months. During that 6 months, Ann proposed to

me as we sat on the deck of the restaurant over-looking the

San Francisco Bay Bridge sipping on mimosa.

We've been married for over 10 years now. Some commitments

are worth sneaking up on!

Related Articles
  Commitment: Your First Step in ANY Successful Endeavor
  The Delayed Impact of Lack of Sales Commitment
  Pursue the Right Job Opportunities For You
  Small Business Success: Commitment One Piece of the Puzzle
  Motivate Your Team by Creating Brand Champions
  Commitment to Business: 3 Commitment to Make Now
  The Difference Between Desire and Commitment
  LEADER ARE LIKE CALENDAR ,NEVER LIES.
  Business Presentations - How Boring Are You?
  Boldness, Commitment and Success!
  Strategic Commitments To Build Trust With Clients According to Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Nine Commitments That Will Emphasize Business Ethics and Company Core Values Are Extremely Crucial To Your Business
  Ten Commitments to Ethics and Personal Conduct For Business Coaches – From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Commitment
  Your Positive Thoughts and Acts of Influence How to Maintain Your Commitment
  Asking for Committment
  Honoring your promises are highly profitable
  How to Demonstrate Commitment to Others
  Conviction Is The Key
  I'll Try

Article Tags: commitment, creating a relationship, fear, marriage, prosperity, relationships



Related Forum Posts
Re: Suspicious/Problematic Users - Heads up mods. Spammer aboard, just deleted one post and notice several others on the bulletin up top. I'm going into review my site to look for more. Might want to check your categories for more of the same. Sneaking in on a weekend when we are busy etc. evidently.
Del Castienne - International Business and Project Brokers - In addition to the above, Del Castienne is an international brokerage firm specializing in various entrepreneural services. Del Castienne is more than just a brokerage, as we facilitate Private International Venture Capital for Business and Projects from Commodity Speculation Transactions, MBO, MBI, M&A, Bridging Finance, Patents, Branding, JV, Corporate Advisory Services, Business Plan Development, etc.. Del Castienne is linked to 1200 private international Venture Capital consortiums and Funding Syndicates with a funding capacity of $ 115 billion and 5000 international Investment Bankers and Business & Project Brokers. This in itself should provide you with a gateway to the best source of funding in the world. Through Del Castienne any entrepreneur can have up to a potential success rate of 25% (conditions apply) with absolutely no up front costs. Del Castienne charges a maximum of 5% commission which is far below the international standard of 10% - 12% on project value. If you are tired of running back and forth with countless dissappointments, please give us an opportunity to assist you. Our minimum Venture Capital amount is $1 million and we a Commitment Letter can be provided with in 30 days after formalities are in place and your information was received.
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira
Re: Training and Self Development - Lets dust this one off Offline, budget and TIME, I feel are the reasons Training and Development take a second seat to building your business. Few start ups business have employees and the 1 or 2 partners are busy getting their business off the ground so the loss of 1 to training is a loss of a working partner Start ups are seldom well capitalized until they reach a certain growth and can offer proof of their business model to Angel or Venture Capital Funding - then they have to perform to meet the requirements of the funder. Angel are more ideal because they understand the important of personal development and often may be the source of your further development and training Offline Chamber of Commerce and related organizations offer training, but normally during your business hours and a often at a cost prohibitive for a start-up - I started a dozen companies and never had time or budget for such offerings - SO WHAT IS WRONG THE LIBRARY? Obviously that comment and I were before the INTERNET. So now we have both the LIBRARY and the INTERNET to source our training - FREE I start every Business Plan and Marketing workshop with a personal NEEDS ANALYSIS. We are looking for entrepreneur suitability, skill sets, etc, While Passion, Confidence, Attitude and Commitment are more difficult to change in a workshop - Awareness can be heightened, Take aways include a personal development plan. Yes would be Entrepreneurs can be trained to be entrepreneurs, but the person has to be open to assessment and honest in identifying their shortfalls. Better still Entrepreneurship is not an end itself as the business grows - either train yourself or turn the company over to corporate guru. How many companies ultimately fail because the entrepreneur would not turn lose of the reigns Be honest with your needs, take time for your needs development! INTERNET INTERNET, where you when I went to college? YOU can do learn and do anything and with the INTERNET and FORUMS such as this are ideal for LEARNING your TRADE Budget, what budget, EXPERTS here share and help you for FREE, all your need it TIME
How to move forward in business - Every man or woman wants to move forward in life. We want to move from the level; we are to higher lever. This takes conscious efforts and massive actions on our part. We have to work it out by ourselves. You are the only one that can make it happen nobody will do it for you. How to work on moving higher from the level you are right now depended on no one but you. We are living in an age where we can outsource anything, but my friend; there are many things you cannot contract out for people to do for you. No one will go to the toilet for you. You are to take 100% responsibility to move to the higher level. Your level of achievements, the quality of your relationship with people and the state of your health depends on you. You have to be dissatisfied with the level you are to make it work. Someone living in a comfort zone and enjoying it will never want to move forward in life. You have to be dissatisfied with the amount of money you are earning, dissatisfied with have no money and not be able to do something nice of buy something good for yourself. You have to be dissatisfied with your achievements if you really to want to jump higher. Someone said insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expect different results. So for you to move higher, you have to change the way of doing things. Improve on the things you have been doing before that makes you to be where you are. If you have been making five phone calls to clients everyday now, increase it to ten. If you have been saving $10 every month increase it to $20. If your level of education is the reason why you are where you are, go back to school. You have the time to do it, reduce the time you spend in front of the television, browsing through unnecessary websites and chatting on your phone. Decide on what you really want and why you want to work on moving higher. Clarify what you want and make a list of them. Then set goals on how to achieve them. Make a commitment to do something about your goal daily. Successful people give no excuse to fulfil their everyday action plans. Commitment gives no room for an excuse. If you determine to run 5 kilometres, every day, do it every day, no matter where you are and the circumstances of the weather around you. There is a motivational speaker in USA, who made a commitment of ruining 8 miles every day. He started 30 years ago and ran every day without fail. He was known to run up and down airplane aisles during international flights and running up and down hotel staircase in winter. How to work on moving higher might not be easy when you first start, but it is worth every effort you put into it. It pays at the end, because you will see your new level of growth and achievements and be happy.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The State of the Sustainable Furniture Industry

Leadership-A Daily Gift

Executive Blind Spots

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.