Pre-season Task 5: Commitment.

by Hamid Bahrami

I kinda didn't get this one.  I wrote down my goals - of course I am committed...

But then, on Sunday night, I made a commitment to run on Monday morning with the exception of pouring rain.  Well, I had a crap night's sleep, didn't end up falling asleep til past midnight and yes, it was raining but I hardly stirred to turn off the alarm and continued sleeping without even registering the rain.  I felt a bit disappointed when I did wake up but hey, I had had a crappy sleep and it was raining!  So I went about my normal morning routine, logged on to the forum at work and low and behold, the Commitment task was there to read.

I pondered it, didn't quite get it.  Yeah, of course I commit to it... derr!  The money is gone from my credit card, I've done the pre-season tasks haven't I?

I then opened up my twitter page and saw that I had committed to something and failed to follow through. 

The world is full of good intentions and they get you bloody nowhere!  Good intentions are nothing, nada, zip.  I have plenty of them.  I intend to do a lot of things that are wonderful and grand and never ever happen. I procrastinate, I make excuses, I blame others, I blame myself and then wallow in self pity.

And finally it clicked.  I'm not just saying I am going to do something.  I am not just intending to do something.  I am COMMITTING to doing something.

That means: no excuses, no procrastinating, no blaming others.

I am not saying, I will wake up at 6am every day and run for exactly 5km.  That is a plan, but not what I am committing to. 

I am committing to doing what I need to to get to my goal - lose 10kg, to run 5k in under 30mins, to run 10k without stopping, and to learn to swim 100m without stopping.  Plans change, shit happens, but come hell or highwater, I WILL get it done.  It won't be perfect, it won't be pretty, it may even well and truely suck!  But it will get done.  I might not be able to get it done in the 12 weeks - but I will get it done.

That is what commitment means.

So at 4pm, I threw on my jogging clothes and grabbed my iPhone and even though I couldn't find my earplugs, I ran.  I went for the run that I commited to.  It wasn't perfect, it was way past the time frame I had allowed, but I did it.

My word means something.
I mean something.