Today marks the 500th day of me keeping The 365 Commitment – the365commitment.com. On January 7th, 2018 I made a commitment to follow a basic formula everyday of my life. No matter what happens, the very minimum that I would do everyday is follow the formula. I was not the one that came up with this idea. I borrowed it from an anonymous woman from an African village in a video snipped that I watched. I think the video was no more then a minute or two long, but the powerful simplicity in which this woman went about her day resonated with me. I had been contemplating a similar approach to things, and had been struggling trying to come up with a system. As I was one to gravitate toward complexity, the powerful simplicity of the formula made a lot of sense to me. In the words of Thoreau – “Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count a half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.”
The commitment formula has been extremely simply. The moment I wake up, I write down a list in a notebook. I call the list “the 365 List.” The list is the most important things to accomplish today. I then pray/meditate about that list. I consider what I could add, who I could help, what am I missing? I then set the priority for the day, which means I simply order them by importance. Then I resolve and make the commitment to get that list done and then I start my day. The last step is at the end of the day, right before I go to bed, I review the list and consider how I did. What did I accomplish? Did I keep my commitment? How will I improve tomorrow? I pray/meditate on this concept, close the notebook and go to sleep.
500 days later and I have built a tremendous capacity to overcome failure, a resistance to stress and pressure. I have added many things to my list everyday. I have accomplished many, failed on many. Not everyday is great, or even good. However, everyday has began and end with this one concept, this formula. I start each day with the resolve to make the most use of this day as possible, to not squander what has been allocated to me. In the back of my mind, I had a promise that I had sort of came up with. The promise what this – if I kept this commitment up for 365 days in a row, then my life would be better. I would not know how it would be better, but it would be a dramatic improvement. The worries and concerns I had then, would seem trivial to the new things that I had taken on. I somehow knew that I would improve my physical and mental health, that I would improve my spirituality, my ability to cope with stress and perhaps even improve financially.
Well my internal promise came true. I improved in many ways. Too many to list here. I created at least 10 new life changing habits that are now completely part of my everyday. I no longer struggle with remembering to do these critically important things. From remembering to exercise, to focusing on learning something new – the process of creating a list everyday, and seeking guidance and inspiration from God, the universe, higher power or whatever you subscribe to has profoundly and incredibly changed my life. I am very pragmatic in everything that I do. If it works, it works. Here I am, 500 days later, after keeping a simple commitment for an extended period of time and I can unequivocally claim that the formula worked.
So I will continue to push on. If I live to be close to 100 years old, then I may one day be writing the 17,000 milestone blog entry. I can only imagine what Day 17,000 of keeping this one commitment will bring to my life. If only I would have started sooner, but that type of thinking is not of the Bushido. So here is to the milestone that you might have achieved today, or the one you will achieve tomorrow! Have faith and courage and push forward. The reward is great. In my new tradition, I will end this message with the words of another African, a gentleman that has had some influence over improving education in his region of Osun:
To succeed in life, you must build the capacity to go through failure and the resistance from allowing that failure to go through you. – Awolumate Samuel
Guy Reams (500)
53 Days Until 1st Marathon
