Interest vs. Commitment
Today my friend posted the following on Facebook:
Watching my friends and living my own life over the last year has taught me something:
Interest comes and goes. Interest is easy. Interest is novel and exciting. You can move it from place to place, person to person like you move a paperweight. Everybody likes to be interested.
Commitment looks hard at first, but as you push past the excuses, something amazing starts to happen. You start to fall in love with whatever you’ve committed to, be it a person or a job or a goal. The work, it turns out, isn’t so hard. Pushing away excuses isn’t hard. You enter an effortless cycle of escalating commitment.
When you are fully committed, you accept no excuses, no reasons, no rationale. Each new obstacle becomes easier to push aside without thought. And your commitment grows. The greater sacrifices make you love your commitment more.
The impossibly hard part comes after your dream is shattered. When you lose the object of your commitment, something breaks inside, and it doesn’t want to be fixed. Losing the commitment, you feel…lost. Where is your North Star? Under darkened skies, where is your ship sailing?
To the lost–and sometimes shattered–souls, interest is easy. But making fresh commitments, that’s hard.
Hello Llama. Good to have you back
November 3, 2011 at 3:40 pm
the degree to which I resonate with this post is uncanny. To summon commitment can be challenging. Afthttp://www.adultpediatricuro.com/career.shtmler losing it especially. At present it feels wise to listen to the excuses. I don’t dislike my present state so much.
November 4, 2011 at 10:21 am
Interesting. I certainly wouldn’t say that interest is bad though. One must move from one stage to the next. In relationships, for example, it must be safe to make that step. I can’t become committed to someone that has not commitment to return. Otherwise I will simply either creep them out or get my heart broken. Probably both. Sometimes I think commitment comes with a letter of permission.
~The Brian
November 4, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Nate, as sharp as your satire is, I like your straight talk on life and correct principles even better.
November 4, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Thank you for your insight Nathan. I agree with you. At times, as Alanna has said, it can be hard to commit. But your description of this process or principle, I can relate to very well. It is good to hear from you again. Hope you are doing well.
November 7, 2011 at 7:31 pm