A famous saying attributed to Jesus, was this concept that if something is offending you or causing you to be offensive – then cut it out. This is and was a bit of revolutionary thinking in spiritual / mental discipline. The concept is that if one part of your life, or something you are fond of, is causing you challenges in keeping your commitments then it is better to remove that part of your life so that the rest of you can be successful. In a religious sense, this concept applies to sin but I want to take a moment and apply this concept to keeping commitments that are important to you.
If you are unable to keep a commitment, or follow through on personal objectives, that you know in your heart are the best and correct thing for you to be doing, then you are choosing to do something else instead. What is that something else? You will definitely know. It will not take you more then a moment to recognize the favorite thing that is taking time and dedication in lieu of your goal or commitment. If you really want to achieve your goals, then you need to sacrifice the thing that is distracting you. Not reduce it, or do it less, or only do it once in a while – cut it completely out.
Ouch. We just do not want to do that do we? There are many reasons why. Pride or ego are the main culprits. Perhaps greed, or some other fulfillment you are getting. Perhaps just laziness or an obligation that you made and do not want to fall back on. Perhaps it is an addiction or a learned behaviour that holds you back. Whatever it is, removing it from your life may not prove to be very easy.
Part of my new 365 commitment, was making room for keeping a personal commitment in my life. I had to remove something really important to me, something that I identified with strongly. However, focusing on my health, focusing on gaining a solid focus on my future self became more important. I had to decide to move on and that was really hard. I am glad I did it now. I just did not understand how much of a burden this other responsibility had in my life. Admittedly, one of the reasons that I successfully was able to follow this 365 commitment was because I had significantly increased the time available to me by cutting out a part of my life what was not necessary.
Anyway, consider this a tip. Take it our leave it. However, if you have something that is in your way or causing you to stumble. Think very strongly about completely removing it from your life!
Guy Reams
365 Member
31 Days Left to 1st Marathon
