The Island of Failed Commitments Part III

The last two posts covered two of the four things that often cause our commitments to fail. We talked in depth about taking all angles into consideration before setting a goal. We talked about doing a reality check as to what all this new goal or ambition will entail in order to make sure we are ready to take the next step. We also talked about planning and having a course of action. Setting up the what, where, when, and how's. In today's post I want to talk about the third thing that is a huge goal assassin. It's nothing new or deep and can be summed up in one word.

3) Compromise
The third thing I see that is a common killer of commitments is compromise. This happens all too often. We set a goal and once things start getting tough we start compromising. We set a goal to run five miles a week and after two weeks we realize how hard it is and say, "well four miles is pretty good too". This wouldn't be a huge deal if it stopped there, but the all too common occurrence is to continue to compromise until you are far from your intended goal.

The big area in my life that this hits me is with my personal devotions. I decide I want to read three chapters a day and then after a few days I become really busy (or so is my excuse) and I cut it back to two chapters or one chapter. Or I just speed read through the three chapters and don't get anything out of it because I don't spend time meditating on it. This type of compromise is just as dangerous.
We have to think broader than just a specific goal. After all reaching pinpoint goals alone is not truly fulfilling. I mean think about it. What's the point in losing ten pounds if I do it in a way that is harmful to my body? (I know many women would argue with me on that one, but that is another topic for another time) How much of a benefit is it if I read three chapters of my Bible everyday, but I don't meditate on it and apply it to my life? What good is it to me if I quit one bad habit only to replace it with another one?

There are a few things we can do to help prevent compromise. One thing that is very important is to set guidelines. When you are making a goal or commitment ask yourself, why? What are you truly wanting to accomplish by achieving this goal? This will give you a much better vantage point to see areas of potential compromise, allowing you set necessary guidelines. Using the weight example, if your goal in losing ten pounds is to help lower your blood pressure and improve your health then you may not want to accomplish this goal by crash dieting which can throw off your metabolism or diet pills that can have adverse effects on your heart. Are you starting to get what I mean?
Another thing to do is to set some kind of time boundaries. Is this a goal you are setting for a week? a month? a year? indefinitely? You may want to start with smaller time periods and work your way up. By setting time boundaries you know where you stand. If you make a commitment to Bible reading set a time. Decide that you are going to read x amount each day for a month or two months. Then decide that you want to notice a change in your thinking and living at the end of that two months and pray accordingly. This gives you a manageable goal to work towards while keeping your focus on the result (to grow spiritually) and not just the pinpoint goal (to read x amount of the Bible).

I will leave you with one more example from my own life. I wanted to improve my health and diet so one of the commitments I made was to stop drinking carbonated beverages (ie. pop, energy drinks, etc.). I set the time boundary of one year. I decided to drink absolutely no carbonated beverage for one full year and that was almost two years ago and I'm still going strong. After a year I realized how much better I felt and how easy it had become to find other things to drink. Setting a time goal allowed me to not become overwhelmed and gave me a date to push for, rather than if I had just committed to stop drinking pop. For how long? Do energy drinks count as pop? The less questions you leave yourself the less room for compromise you give.