The Commitment Comes First

When you’re feeling stuck in not knowing how to do something, or how to get started, all you have to do is make a commitment. It’s incredible what happens when you step forward and commit to something, and how the path reveals itself once you’re on it.

But before getting into how that works, let’s explore why it’s so hard to get started with anything…

Our human nature is to do less and conserve energy. It’s wired into our evolutionary psychology. On top of that, the main function of our brain is to keep us safe.

When we’re considering a path forward and we don’t know exactly what it looks like or how to do it, it triggers a state of uncertainty in the mind. The mind interprets uncertainty as a threat to our safety because ‘different’ could be dangerous. So our brain actively makes it hard to take action as a way of keeping us safe, leveraging things like limiting beliefs and perfectionism to keep us where we’re at. This is a textbook explanation of self-sabotage.

This is when our brain finds all the reasons why we shouldn’t rather than why we should, which delays our decision making and postpones us from getting started. And it’s a false, manufactured sense of fear that often doesn’t serve you.

But when you make a commitment, despite the ways your brain is trying to tell you not to, something really interesting happens. No longer is your brain spending energy trying to figure out ‘if’ you’re going to do it, which dominates your mental bandwidth. Instead you get to start putting all of your thought into ‘how’ you’re going to do it, and with that extra attention all of the ideas and insights you need to make it happen start coming through.

So if you’re feeling stuck in any capacity, make a commitment because it will shift you into motion.

Want to start exercising more often? Tell someone that you’re going to start going for a walk every day and guess what happens, you figure out how to prioritize it in your day instead of saying that you “just don't’ have enough time”. 

Been wanting to start a new hobby for a while but haven’t gotten around to it? Book one lesson, take one class, or schedule time with a friend to do it once.

Making a commitment completely changes the dynamic in your life. Instead of trying to fit it into your schedule, you start to build around it. And with a new design you start to play a new game.