Come Hell of High Water
by Michael Feeley
There is a difference between intention and commitment. Intention lives in good weather. Commitment lives in the storm.
“Come hell or high water” strips away the conditions. Not I’ll try. Not as long as things go smoothly. It is a promise that survives the exact circumstances that would permit anyone to quit.
I know this as a coach. To commit to a person is to do whatever it takes to move them from where they are to where they hope to be. Not to guarantee the outcome, because I cannot make anyone change, but to guarantee that I will not leave them because the work got slow, or hard, or stalled. That is the promise underneath the promise.
I know this in loyalty to friends and family. Easy to be loyal at the celebration. The real test comes when someone is difficult, when years pass, when loyalty costs something, and no one is watching to see if you keep it.
I know this in the choice to write. Every day, handwritten first, for years now. Not because I always feel like it. Because I decided, once, that I would, and a decision made once and re-broken now and then is not a decision at all.
Commitment is never tested by the easy days. It is defined entirely by what you do on the days it isn’t.
So, I ask you the same question I ask myself:
What do you take seriously? Where do you show up, fully, even on the day you don’t want to?
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
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This matters too – Find Your Tenacity.
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