What is self-commitment? What does it take to really commit to your promises and follow through in spite of the difficulties that arise along the way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Self-commitment is a promise to follow through on your accountability, or a promise to perform your intended actions. According to Michael Lennington, the author of The 12 Week Year<\/em>, there are four components to developing a strong sense of self-commitment: a strong desire, keystone actions, cost of commitments, and self-accountability<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read about self-commitment and how to develop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The simple act of self-commitment is life-changing. Your sense of self and success grows the more you continue to show up and do the work. But it\u2019s too easy to break our promises when situations become difficult. If you only do what you say you’ll do when things are easy, you\u2019re not truly committing to your work or life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The following components are required to develop a strong sense of self-commitment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you make a self-commitment, you\u2019re stating that you have an intention to do something in the future. But there are two types of intentions inside each commitment: stated and hidden. Your stated<\/em><\/strong> intentions are like the top of the iceberg poking out of the water, which is only about 10% of the total mass. The hidden<\/em><\/strong> intentions are like the 90% of the iceberg below the waterline. In your life, you can call this the \u201cwaterline of consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re fully aware of your stated intentions. You intend to lose weight, you intend to make extra sales calls, or you intend to take your spouse on their dream vacation. But these stated intentions are in conflict with the hidden intentions. Under the surface, your subconscious has other intentions, such as not wanting to give up pizza or leisure time for diet food and exercise, not wanting to work late or be too exhausted to enjoy the weekend, or not wanting to spend a lot of money or take the time off of work to travel. These hidden intentions conflict with your stated ones, and because you\u2019re unaware of them and their power, they often win the battle and keep you from following through.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n To successfully keep your promises, you must become aware of the corresponding hidden intentions for each stated intention you make. You can often discover your hidden intentions by looking at the costs associated with the promised action. Only when your stated intention is greater than your hidden ones will you be able to reconcile the conflict in your favor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All commitments you make to yourself are explicit. You understand the circumstances and your thoughts, so you\u2019re fully aware of the agreement you\u2019re making. But between you and another person, there are explicit and implicit commitments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Explicit commitments are those spoken to another, what is often called \u201cgiving your word\u201d to someone. Implicit commitments are assumed actions based on what is expected from specific relationships: a parent\u2019s love, a partner\u2019s fidelity, or a leader\u2019s guidance and support. Most issues that arise in relationships are because trust or hearts have been broken due to a failure to uphold either explicit or implicit promises. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The following strategies are ways to ensure you keep your promises to others:<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to Develop Self-Commitment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stated Intentions Versus Hidden Intentions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Implicit Versus Explicit Commitments<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n