The 365 Commitment

Three Years

Well, today marks a special milestone. I have ended 3 years in a row (1095 days) of following what I call The 365 Commitment. Every morning I have got up at 5am and followed the same formula. I ponder what the most important things are that I can do for the day, write them down, prioritize them and then prayerfully commit to doing the best that I can. Then at the end of the day, I review the list, review how I could have done better and once again prayerfully consider how I might do better. This has been a fun journey, I set out with the hope that certain things in my life would improve, and that certainly has been the case. So I have followed the same habit for 1095, 365X3, days in a row. Now some days have been better than others, some days all I could do was crawl out of bed, scribble a few things, mumble my willingness to the best I could and just survive for the day. Other days have been amazing, accomplishing all that I set out to achieve.

I have added many other habits during the process, a total of 7 that I keep now. I have added a few, dropped a few, but I am currently maintaining the core seven habits. I have some new goals that I am working on, new habits that I am pondering. When I first started, I could have never conceived of getting to a 1000+ days, now I cannot imagined not following the commitment, as it has become so ingrained.

One of those 7 habits, I have also kept for 1095 days in a row, and that is writing a blog entry. So this blog entry marks my 1095th blog entry. You think I would come up with something amazing to write about, some miraculous, earth shattering revelation. Well, we took a family trip and we just got back this evening. I have been driving all day and I am tired, writing a blog entry is probably the last thing that I want to do, but here is the point, which is probably the inspiration for today. I have made a commitment, that commitment has become a habit, a good habit that is so part of me, that I could do nothing else until I sat here, took a few moments and started writing an entry.

That is the thing about choosing good commitments and habits to follow. They have a incremental impact on your life. You replace the old with the new and you start to see the impact of that new behaviour in your life. I am looking back at the thousands of pages that I have written on this journey, and laugh at some of the weird thoughts, chuckle at some embarrassing moments, but for the most part am pleased with the accumulated total of the experience and life lived with purpose.

I wonder what I will be writing about on day 18,615? Hmm. I guess I will find out, because tomorrow is 1096.

Guy Reams

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