Being a trying-to-change-the-world entrepreneur is kind of crazy. There are about one billion things I could be working on at any given time. Some of them are important for the long term vision, some of them FEEL important, and some just plain aren’t. *cough Facebook ahem*
It is so damn hard to just keep doing the important thing… Until it’s a habit. A way of life.
I’m inspired by people like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Derek Halpern who stay on it day and night.
I want to be the kind of person who consistently writes great content and does workouts and eats lots of veggies. I want to be kind and caring with everyone including slow-walkers on Robson.
Doing the important thing requires commitment. Commitment to improvement, to abstaining, to some kind of discipline. To being a certain kind of person. To truly being with someone, throwing yourself in with no escape hatch, ready to give it your all and risk the biggest, messiest, most painful failure.
Here are my top ten escape hatches:
I need to do this other super important thing first:
I commit to making the sales calls at 1pm and I get a totally important email in my inbox that MUST BE DEALT WITH IMMEDIATELY!!! This one is sneaky coz the email really does seem important.
The social pressure:
I promise myself “no pastries for a month” and then I’m out with the girlfriend to visit her parents and her mom just made incredible-smelling homemade brownies. She’ll be offended if I don’t have one! What would she think of me if I say no thanks I’m not eating pastries? I have no choice.
The bottomless hole:
I commit to work on my goals in the evening and I just take a quick break to see what’s up on Facebook. Then I’m watching videos about cats who steal dog beds. Then I’m watching a TED talk about the mathematics of weight loss. Then I want some popcorn. And hey I may as well watch a movie and do my goals tomorrow. And why not some chips and chocolate after the movie as well?
Angry at the world:
Things are just NOT going my way. I want more money more easily, more accolades with less work, and everything to just work out with less effort. I want to smash the world, and instead I smash myself with an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey and task list avoidance.
I totally ate salad and worked out today:
I did so good today! I had a smoothie for breakfast and a salad for lunch and totally rocked the gym. I’m allowed to have yam fries for an appetizer and some cheesecake after dinner.
I’ll start again tomorrow:
I make a commitment to myself to write in my blog EVERY DAY FOR 30 DAYS. The night when I work a bit later and have a dinner with friends and get home tired I say “screw it, I’ll just start again tomorrow.” Whether I actually do start again tomorrow is a crap shoot.
I’ll deal with it later, they’ll understand:
This is when I’ve promised something to a friend, a coach, or a client. They’re really forgiving as a person and I use their flexibility to make it okay that I am not meeting my commitment to them. Or maybe I have “food poisoning” (whatever that is) and use that as the reason to not push to meet my commitment.
It’s just a little bit:
This one is insidious. It’s just a little bite of cake. It was just a passing snarky comment to someone I care about. It’s just one silly video or one text message instead of phone calling. Corner cutter extraordinaire, little bits here and there.
The last hurrah before really committing:
I love this one – I used it a lot back when I was drinking. I actually believed that before starting a diet or a life change I should binge like hell on that thing the day before stopping. What I learned was it just made it impossible to change in the next couple days coz the cravings were so strong.
I’m afraid of commitment:
This one is total BS. I’m not afraid of committing – I’m afraid of losing the flexibility and comfy options that I have access to while NOT committing. If I’m afraid of committing to a diet change, I’m just afraid of losing the future pie or yam fry opportunities. If I’m afraid of committing in a relationship, I’m just afraid of losing all the possible future Mr./Mrs. Right relationships. It’s just plain scary to lose those future options.
How to be a momentary hero with yourself:
Don’t listen to the voices! It’s a dream-wrecking trap!
When I committed to not have sugar, chips, pastries for 90 days I had many instances of feeling like a bleeping rock star hero with myself. In the moment when I’m at the party and the table of pastries is calling my name it feels so difficult and awful to say NO.
I would think about all the times I’ve indulged and broken my promise to myself, and use that wisdom from past failures to hold my ground. It’s only in the 5-10 minutes after the craving passed that I really felt great.
The most character and strength of commitment is built in those difficult moments. When you don’t feel like doing the work. The sales calls are scary and you might be rejected. You’re tired. You have a headache. You have a damn good reason not to. But you stand up, do some jumping jacks, dance to an awesome song like Daft Punk “Get Lucky” and get to work.
Go be a hero. Start now, not tomorrow.
