Commitment is not a four letter word!

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Inside The Edge

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Four Cents

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Jamie O’Neill’s “My Four Cents” articles offer a great change of pace from the typical literature you may find on a management consultant or leadership development web site. Most of the time, self-improvement is about assessing and amending your personal skills; however, every once in a while it is necessary to take a step back from it all and consider broader topics like your personal values and goals. “My Four Cents” forces you to do exactly that.

With her down-to-earth and practical perspectives, Jamie offers a view of the world that everyone can derive some value from. The articles in this section allow you to remove yourself from day to day trails and focus on what you consider to be truly important in your life. So take the time to read a few; we think they will really help… but hey, that’s just our four cents.

People need to start taking commitment seriously again. Even the word commitment to many people sends them running in the opposite direction - it'stime to change!

I recently came out of retirement, well basketball retirement, but retirement nonetheless. It had been over 10 years since I last played and I was anxious, nervous, and scared, but I was dying to get back on the court. Believe me when I say this, I was entering to play in a women’s recreation league, and at no point was I thinking I was making a last run to get recruited to the WNBA. This was time for me to get back and enjoy a game I loved so very much.

However, within a month of playing, I quickly remembered why exactly I stopped playing 10 years ago – people have commitment issues. The last time I checked, it took five people per team to play a game of basketball; however, when you add 20 pounds and 10 years, those few subs sitting on the bench are a nice addition. But unfortunately, it appears that I joined a team that a) could not read a schedule, b) didn’t own a phone or c) had commitment issues. I am going with option c on this one. Even though we only played 1 night per week, we had a hard time getting five girls out to the game.

Again, I understand we were not getting paid to play in this league. It was not my career, but this is a team sport and with anything involving a team, it means that other people are counting on you to not only show up, but for you to do your part as well. “Success is not a solo sport”…unless you’re playing tennis!

Perhaps I was raised differently, but I could have sworn that if I told someone I’d do something, I should actually do it. When did it become acceptable to just not show up? I am not just talking about my basketball team here; I mean everything, your relationships with people, your work, and life in general!

We are living in a society in which the general opinion seems to be that more than half of marriages today will end in divorce and that people will have already had 8 jobs by the time they are 30. Does anyone else see a problem here?

Commitment is a two way street and it should not have a negative connotation – commitment is not a 4 letterword people! Can you imagine if everyone did what they said they were going to do? Profits would increase, your new house would get built in time, and we’d actually be able to elect politicians with confidence and not with “I hope they do what they said they were going to do”.

People need to start taking commitment seriously again. We can no longer afford to let people off the hook. Weall need to pull up our socks and get back into the game – but that’s just my 4 cents!