Commitment: The fuel of desire - 2

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When you say, I cannot afford it”, you simply shut up all possibilities and the finality of that hopelessness becomes your reality. But when you say, “How can I afford it?” you give your brain time and space to explore possibilities.

Jesus was concerned. He looked across the humongous crowd of about 10,000 people that had gathered for three days to hear Him speak. They had been without food. Even though none of them openly complained, He felt responsible for their welfare. So He turned to His disciples and said in a decisive tone, “Give them something to eat.” Scandalized by the Rabbi’s instruction, they wasted no time in telling Him that there was no way the entire purse of His organization could feed even a minute fraction of this population. However, He knew what He would do to accomplish the feat. By His proclamation, He pronounced a ‘destination’ which was, seeing the people fed. That also opened up the channel for possibilities. He saw and spoke possibilities while the disciples only saw and spoke limitations. By the time He was done, everyone was fed with abundance of leftovers.

Your dreams and desires will remain a mirage until you turn them to a DECISION. Commitment only happens when your WILL is locked into your desire or persuasion. Unless that happens, the best you’ll end up with is a daydream or even a nightmare that can haunt you for life. The story of the prodigal son in the Bible is instructive here. At the nadir of his life, this offspring of a wealthy and doting father discovered that pigs were rated higher than he in his present state. His epiphany moment came, and as the scriptures say, “HE CAME TO HIMSELF (persuasion). The he locked his will into a decision and said, “I WILL arise”. But he did not stop there. He actually arose and headed home, not minding the possible attendant shame.

Your name is not OMNIPRESENT or OMNIPOTENT. Stop competing with God for those titles by your numerous unproductive involvements. How many of the groups you belong to on social media actually add any significant value to your life? How many of the social clubs that you are part of are really empowering to your dreams? Commitment teaches you to say NO to some good things so that you can say YES to the best things. When you commit to a cause, it will force you to live a life of priorities, not preferences.

Commitment in any given direction demands CONSISTENCY. Consistency is a denominator of integrity. My definition of consistency is PREDICTABLE RELIABILITY/DEPENDABILITY in a specific, sustained direction.

Are you predictably reliable? It is disheartening to note that many people even in leadership are very shifty in their commitments and routinely laugh it off when confronted with such dysfunction! And they would gleefully tell you that everyone is doing it.

Commitment cannot happen without FOCUS. I define the word FOCUS as Follow One Course Until Successful. Lack of focus dulls the leader’s edge. Little drops of water falling on the same spot consistently for an extended period of time will bore a hole on that surface. Even a dull cutlass or axe hitting the same spot consistently on a tree will eventually fell the tree. Progress is made one step at a time. Focus makes the destination more valuable than the distractions along the way. Focusing on the destination makes the journey and its challenges bearable. God could have created the whole earth in ONE day but He didn’t! He did it in bits and one day at a time. He ensured that He saw the expected outcome before moving to the next thing. And yet He is the OMNIPOTENT!

As indicated in the story of the chicken and the pig used to illustrate the difference between commitment and involvement, committed people have an investment mindset that enables them to put their skin in the game as STAKEHOLDERS.

Involved people on the other hand have nothing to lose and can walk away from anything or anyone because their hearts were never invested anyway. They came in for the ride and the temporary dividend and when that is not coming, they simply walk away. Simply put, when you are only involved in something or with someone without being invested in it or them through an abiding commitment to follow through the course come rain or shine, you are nothing but a mere space holder in the venture and you are a very expendable part of the equation. If you work only for the pay, you are a mere space holder. When a corporate organization is in distress, have you noticed that the first set of people to be laid off are usually the expendable space holders who hardly bring value beyond their pay into the enterprise? When you are in a relationship where you only see the faults of the other party while you take their good side for granted or totally ignore it, you obviously have no commitment to them. You are a mere space holder in their life.

A person’s commitment quotient is known by the quantum and quality of his expenditure of certain factors in any particular, specific direction. The first is how he spends his time. What are the things that occupy most of your waking moments? If we were to check your use of time, that irreplaceable asset given in equal daily measure to the rich and the poor, the king and the subject, what are we going to find? How much time do you commit to personal development? To family? To developing and servicing meaningful relationships?

Commitment is also known by the dominant flow of your emotions. My definition of emotions is ENERGY IN MOTION. Jesus taught us that our energies flow in the direction of our most dominant thoughts. What are you passionate about enough to build your life and legacy around? Something that pulls you into thoughts bigger than merely surviving. What is it that makes your entire being pulsate with excitement and gives you a sense of mission rather than mere existence? If you cannot invest your energies in that direction, any insignificant thing can stop you in your tracks!

If we were to track your expenditure pattern, where does most of your income go? Clothes? What is the point of looking good outside when you are empty inside? Commit to your personal growth. If you think knowledge is too expensive, try ignorance!

Early this year, I changed the rules of engagement on a platform where I mentor over 400 people because even though they registered on the platform out of their own freewill, I discovered that half of them were not committed to the essence of mentorship. Nobody, not even God, can prioritize or put a premium on your development more than you.

Some people were only on the platform to look for materials to post or teach to another group even when they were yet to internalize and practice the truth taught. I saw many of the materials posted on some platforms word for word without acknowledging the source! … continued.

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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