Figmentations

Commitment is important to being successful.  Recently I found myself contemplating whether commitment was easy or difficult? 

At first I thought that when someone knows their life purpose, commitment to it would just cleanly, easily be there.  The simple part about commitment is that it is relatively easy to see if it is present or if it isn’t. 

Yet, as I believe about most things, I feel there is probably a range or scale of stages between the two extremes.  

So, commitment, too, would have components, elements, and dynamics.

You can have commitment to: a person, a process, a passion, a purpose, a path, a principle, a priority, etc.

Commitment, like passion, can be strong or weak, can develop suddenly or gradually, and can ebb and flow.

Then I looked for a few quotes for inspiration.  One specific quote caught my attention, not just as a whole, but for one word in particular.  Consider the following quote:

“The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one.  Commitment is healthiest when it’s not without doubt but in spite of doubt.”  Dr. Rollo May (an American existential psychologist.)

The particular word that caught my attention was: “healthiest”.

As I recalled the list of adjectives that I had brainstormed about earlier when first starting to write this article, I realized that “healthiest” supported the notion of complexity amid the simplicity of commitment.

Consider these adjectives that can describe commitment: confining, focusing, defining, blinding, binding, driving, lasting, fleeting, or freeing.

That brings me to consider adding this question to my criteria for success:  How healthy are my commitments?

How healthy are your commitments?  What adjectives would you use to describe commitments?
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For a list of all posts in this series go to: Finding Purpose (actual links will be posted as each post becomes live.)