“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, our dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
– Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
Commitment is the beginning, the middle and the end. An unwavering commitment to a discipline sets off a chain of events that brings forth character, dignity, divinity, grace, sacrifice and happiness to anyone and everyone who stays the path. Commitment, which always requires us to face our fears and move in opposition to our limiting beliefs, unlocks our creative potential and places us in co-creation with the Universe. It is the path of The Way.
In our last two podcasts (Break Free and Trust: A Redesign for Living) Jacqueline and I discussed the benefits of committing to a daily practice and the incredible impact this type of commitment has had on our own lives. Yoga, breathwork, meditation, prayer, journalling, hot and cold therapy, exercise, etc. are all building blocks of a daily discipline that, once committed too, will as Goethe claims, allow Providence to move in.
But there is another dimension of commitment that goes beyond the “doing”. It doesn’t require us to get up early, push ourselves physically or sit in silence. It is committing to our character. It is asking the question “who do I choose to be” and then committing to being that character. It requires dropping the limiting beliefs that our identities are decided and fixed, and that we are nothing more than the conditioned set of behaviours that we wear as a mask, our egos and our personas. It is facing the fear that we won’t survive, be accepted or be loved if we change who we are. But we have the ultimate choice in this. In fact, “who we choose to be”, regardless of the circumstances, is the only real choice we have.
This commitment to character moves beyond a daily practice and into a continuous practice. It is one of the hardest things to take on. It is a way of life. It is how we choose to flow in the world and how we invite the world to flow into us. The commitment to a discipline of character becomes your life and can give you the life you are searching for. When I choose to be rigorously honest, unconditionally forgiving, empathetic, compassionate, kind and curious then I get to be the man I always dreamed of being. When I have the courage to show up in the world this way, I am the version of myself that I am truly proud of.
Our character follows us into eternity – everything else turns to dust.
I belong to a fellowship that places a tremendous amount of emphasis on choosing the character you want to be in your own life, but we have a saying that “no one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines …we claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection”.
We don’t achieve perfection because it is a “practice”, and a practice is the path of progress. But no saint started out a saint, they practiced the craft of choosing their character and aimed higher every time they stumbled. Almost all saints lived with the tension of opposites. They carried great joy while enduring great suffering. Joy was a choice.
Commit to the character you choose to be and aim high. When you do, we will see you on the road to happy destiny.
The Way
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