Commitment - How To Stay Committed To A Cause

Hey, what’s up? This is Leo for Actualized.org and in this video I want to talk about commitment and I want to give you an example of what it takes to be committed to your life purpose.

Hey, all right, commitment, let’s talk about this, let’s crack into it. I want to get really practical with you guys in these videos and I want to give you more and more details about what it is I actually mean about some of these concepts. Sometimes when you get these concepts I know what’s going on in your heads when you get these concepts. I know that you’re dismissing them because you’re missing the depth and the impact that they can really have on you. One of the things that I think I can do is share more examples of what I really mean.

Get Action On Your Goals

A lot of times you’ll be surprised by how these concepts actually get fleshed out in real life and how it can be something really simple that you just overlook. You don’t really notice these things until you start to study this stuff like I do and when I give you these examples the thing they’re going to do is solidify in your mind what I’m really talking about. So one of the things that I want from you is that I want commitment from you and I want you to be working to get action on your goals.

One of the things I mean by commitment, because commitment can be an abstract term, what the hell does commitment mean? How can you quantify commitment? I’ve got a perfect example for you today. It’s actually something I struggled with a little bit.

A little technical fact is as I’m shooting these videos I use an expensive wireless microphone. The wireless microphone system plugs into the camera, I’ve got it on my hip here. This microphone system takes two AA batteries on the receiver and the transmitter so it’s four AA batteries. I don’t know how much time I get. I usually get maybe, I’d say, four hours of recording on four of those batteries. One set of batteries will get me about four hours of footage then the battery dies out and I need to replace those to shoot more video.

So what’s the point? The point is I’ve been putting myself on track to be releasing a lot of content, a lot of videos for you guys and I want to keep doing that for the long run. So today, I had a pack of maybe twelve batteries and I was starting to run low and so I went to Home Depot to buy some more batteries and I’m stocking up and as I’m there looking at the battery counter and there’s all sorts of brands, all sorts of sizes and the packages, I’m looking for AAs, and I see packages.

I see a four pack, I see an eight pack, I see a twelve pack. I’m like, a twelve pack, that’s nice I want something big because i plan to be shooting more of these videos, I’m committed to that. So twelve pack looks good, then I think, what is more than twelve? How about a twenty pack, do they have a twenty pack? Sure enough they have a twenty pack.

Then I look, do they have anything bigger like a thirty pack? Sure enough there’s like a thirty-six pack of Energizers. I’m like, “Yeah, that’s what I should be getting. Why? I’m going to be saving some money if I do that, but ultimately why would I not do that if I’m serious about releasing this content. Am I serious about it or not? Why am I hesitating?”

A Subtle Mental War

I found myself hesitating and it’s not like I have a money problem, I don’t have a shortage of money so I can splurge and buy as many batteries as I really want. It’s not going to really affect my bottom line, but psychologically what’s happening in my mind is there’s a little bit of a war going on, it’s a little subtle if you’re not sensitive to it.

What’s happening is I was standing there and I was thinking on the one level I saw some limiting beliefs I still have about money and scarcity and still found myself saying, “Do I really need thirty-six Energizer batteries, what am I going to do with that many of them? What if I end up not liking the Energizers and maybe I want some other brand later, then I’m going to have all these left over batteries. Or what happens if they expire?”

Then I actually picked the pack up and started looking at expiration dates and I’m wondering, “Will I even be able to burn through that many batteries in the next year or two?” I don’t now how long a battery lasts, I’m not sure. Started looking at the expiration dates and by the way batteries last forever so there’s not a problem there.

The other thought that I was having is, the bottom line of it is I was questioning whether this is something that I’m committed to because on the one hand, logically I’m saying, “Yes I’m committed to this. I’m committed to releasing lots of content. I want to be doing this for at least the next few years of my life. I’m just going to devote myself to creating content, maybe even longer if things are going great”.

Your Mind Will Resist

So I committed myself to that, but, I’m still working the process. It’s not just simple. It’s not black and white. You start off and you tell yourself consciously, but it’s still not really permeated on the subconscious level. It’s not totally you. You don’t always believe everything you tell yourself and that’s how it should be. That doesn’t mean you’re bullshitting yourself, you’re moving yourself up. You’re kind of bootstrapping yourself and bootstrapping yourself can be tricky, can be tough. Sometimes your mind will resist.

In this case my mind was resisting a little bit. I noticed I wasn’t fully bought in with the battery situation and then I’m like, “Well you know what, why am I not practicing what I’m preaching here? I’m telling you guys to be committed. I’m telling myself even. My high self is telling my lower self that I’m committed and that I’m willing to do this, I’m going to be spending the next few years doing this.”

Logically it just makes sense that I would stock up on as many batteries as I can get because I’m burning through batteries so quickly that realistically I’m going to be burning through thirty-six batteries in a month if not in a few weeks because of how much content I shoot. That being the case then I’ll easily be able to use those batteries. Even as I was having that argument with myself I still noticed resistance.

The lower self was resisting and it was saying, ” What if I want to leave my options open? What if I decide that this wasn’t really what I want to do? What if I decide I want to do something else? Maybe I stop shooting video, maybe something happens… Not too smart to stock up in that case”.

Leave Your Options Open If You Want To

See, what I’m doing there is leaving my options open. Sometimes it’s smart to leave your options open. I’m not saying you should always cut, make these decisions and make these cuts. Sometimes you want to keep stuff open, great. Sometimes you want to make cuts, you want to make a clear cut and you want to say, “This is it, I’m all in. I’m committed”. It’s a little bit of a technique, a little bit of a mind fuck that you run on yourself to get yourself to follow through on stuff that you said you were going to follow through on, because it’s tough.

Sometimes I’m really excited to be shooting these videos, usually I am, but it’s still tough motivate myself to get up here and do this stuff. I have to summon charisma and energy and knowledge and resources that I would rather not have to summon. I’d rather sit on the couch and do nothing. Honestly that would be easier and more comfortable than being up here in front of a bright light and shooting all this stuff and wondering about whether I said everything I wanted to say, and getting it right and editing and posting it and then trying to make sure that you guys are happy with it and I’m happy with it…

You Have To Keep Recommitting

That’s more of a hassle than not doing it, but there’s something higher there that I’m working towards. I’m making a commitment and I’m recommitting. This is key. You don’t make a commitment once. You keep recommitting because I can guarantee you that even if you find that perfect fit, that perfect life purpose, that perfect cause in your life that perfect business, that perfect job, just that perfect vocation for you, your life call and you find it, you feel awesome.

The next week, your life can still feel pretty dull and in fact you can feel depressed the next week, because you were on a high, now you’re on a low. That’s how it is sometimes. Then you get some snag here, you get some snag there, something doesn’t quite go the way you want it to go, you’re becoming butt hurt about it, you’re becoming depressed about it. All of a sudden you start going into a spiral of negative thinking, worry, pessimism.

All of a sudden you start thinking about failure too much, all your old limiting beliefs come back in a big, bright flash and what do you want to do? You want to quit, you want to cut, you want to run, you want to pull yourself out of that commitment. Oh yeah, you don’t want to be committed at that point.

What you’ve got to do is you’ve got to realize that it’s all a trick. It’s your mind fucking with you. It’s your mind trying to keep you where you’re at and not where you should be. What you’ve got to do is you’ve got to push yourself through and you say, “This is tough. This is a really tough time, but I’m pushing through it. I’m not going to say this battery situation was really tough for me, it was just a subtle thing, but I want you to notice how commitment gets translated into something very tangible.

Wait one second. Look, batteries. What did I end up buying? I bought sixty AA Rayovacs. Sixty batteries. Look at that. Sixty bad boys. So now I’m excited to create enough content to burn through sixty batteries. This is about fifteen four hour sessions of footage so I’ve got a lot of recording to do. This is what I mean about commitment. This is practical. This is tangible.

It’s Up To You To Apply The Abstract

What I want you to be doing with all the information that I’m sharing with you throughout all these videos, not just this one but all the rest, is I want you to always keep in mind that everything that I’m telling you that seems abstract is abstract, it’s a principle, it’s a guideline, it’s a rule of thumb. You need to take it upon yourself to then find ways of applying it.

This is how I interpreted commitment. This works for me, this is not going to work for you. You don’t need sixty AA batteries. It’s not going to do anything for you. You need something else in your life. Commitment for you is going to mean something totally different, but the idea of it is still going to apply. The abstract principle is going to apply.

How it’s going to manifest, that’s for you to decide. You have to use your best judgment, but all these concepts that I’m throwing at you are practical. Don’t tell me they’re abstract, you just start using them the way that I want you to use them. You’re not taking the initiative. You still have to do the work.

I’m not here to solve your problems. I’m here to give you ideas. I’m here to inspire you and to keep you honest with yourself and to keep you accountable to your higher self. I do that by providing wisdom, knowledge, inspiration… whatever.

This is what it comes down to. Start to be smart about this. Start to see how wisdom manifests in the world in practical ways like this and you will start moving forward really fast in your life because all the stuff you know s right, you’re going to start doing it and it’s going to start manifesting and start happening. You’re going to start taking action because stuff is going to connect with you and you’re going to say, “Ah, so that’s what that principle meant.” You’re going to start to say, “Oh, okay. So that principle was abstract but it was actually powerful. There’s power in the abstractness of it”.

Appreciate What The Abstract Can Do For You

I can give you very, very minutia type tricks and tricks and techniques, but that’s not going to make you resourceful, plus it’s just not very practical with this format where I don’t really know you too well through the camera. The more powerful thing here is that you start to develop an understanding and appreciation of what abstract principles and ideas can do for you.

When you start to see that… wow! When you really feel it, you really buy into this, that wisdom can actually be practical and can actually be transformative to your life, improve your life in very tangible ways, what’s going to happen is you’re going to buy into this whole idea of self-mastery that I’m promoting. You’re going to buy into the self-help movement. You’re going to start reading books. You’re going to start accumulating more wisdom. You’re actually going to start thinking about wisdom and that’s what you need.

It’s not enough to sit here and absorb information from me. It’s not even enough to go and apply a principle. I want you to go above and beyond that. I want you to not only apply a principle successfully and to see how this works, but I want you to start cultivating a deep appreciation and understanding that these principles are powerful and that you should want to understand them and apply them almost for their own sake, not even for what they do for you-although they can do a lot- almost for their own sake because of the power they have, and the majesty and the wisdom.

Wrap Up

All right, so this is it. I’m getting off the soap box. This is Leo signing off. Go ahead leave me your comments, share this, like this so that others can get the message and of course I would like you to check out Actualized.org where you can sign up for the free newsletter where I release exclusive articles each week so you can stay on top of your commitment so you can recommit and I can help you to keep remembering holding yourself accountable.

Also for signing up you get some awesome free bonuses. You get a nineteen-part video series, exclusive only to my subscribers and you also get a chance to win two hours of free coaching from me which I give away every month. You don’t want to miss out on that so go ahead, sign up right now.