Truths remain true even when they are not at the forefront of our experience. The endurance of truth shapes the meaning of our loyalties, disciplines, learnings and values.
Commitment to our truths is never a mistake, even if our reasons seem overpowered by urgency, changing circumstances or the latest facts. Actually, when those reasons are challenged is when the commitment is most meaningful; it serves as a beacon, a compass, preserves our self-respect and our identity through confusing times.
From there, our truths carry us on our path, keep us company, give meaning to our experience; they are the light at the end of the tunnel, the thread of our existence.
Commitment takes effort, and unless we care enough, we’re likely to prefer moving on, choosing multiplicity and diversity over depth and exacting endurance.
And that is that, there is no getting to excellence, authenticity, or intimacy, without the will to grow and keep improving.
In that endeavour, the object of our commitment takes us over, overwhelms us, requires us to endure, and if we surrender to it, we are transformed irreversibly.
Even as the path is clear and the journey is undertaken, commitment only deepens with practice, repetition, time, endurance, shared experience. Expecting too much to soon, skipping the foundation steps only compromises the robustness of the construction. All the same, caring for the foundation of commitment means never taking it for granted.
The core reward of commitment is self-respect. Nothing beats genuine attention and proven loyalty to cement a sense of substance, integrity, solidity.
The good man in the storm, the unwavering fan, the nurturing supporter, the tireless underdog, the incorruptible agent and many more, have in common a stubborn passion for their code, or their cause. Their cause is their code, and vice versa.
When we care and act like it, when we stick to our code no matter what, we can never truly regret our actions: We know we gave it our best.
Endurance means committing again and again. It comes at a price.
We can't choose something without renouncing something else.
We don't know, when we make a commitment what kind of endurance it will take. But we choose to trust that remaining loyal is worthwhile, that the sacrifices are worth the rewards.
When we don't, when we buy into the fear and refuse the loss of alternatives, we betray our commitment.
Some pursuits are in vain. Wasting our time and loyalty to a lost cause, beating a dead horse, chasing a ghost are misplaced commitment.
What we are committed to isn’t found in a losing game. Neither is it in a specific game.
When the odds are none, commitment has to switch to a winning strategy, and attainable goal, a practical method.
We remain more loyal to our cause by moving on to the next battle than we do in inane resilience.
In an abundant universe, a hungry soul remains unfulfilled until it digs deep into something substantial.
Reaching the depth means committing, sticking to a purpose, a value, an identity, something that we can be deeply acquainted with, carry and follow, expand and sustain.
Commitment is our bearing, how we know, how we steer. Then we are again available to devour all that life has to offer.
We can't truly experience something or someone and come out of the experience unchanged.
Inevitably, connection shares something of us, and lets something in.
The second we participate rather than observe or take, the connection has an effect on us we can't contain, control, or shape, of which the rippling effect and unravelling supersede any choice we may make.
Resistance here is counter-nature, it defeats the purpose of experience. People, places and things we connect to will rub off on us. Surrendering to the fact means trusting, letting it be a good thing.
Lasting
Duration
Continuity
Permanence