Why make commitments?
Making commitments is a way of internalizing the new materials you have read into your daily life and makes the learning more meaningful, relevant to your purpose in life, and deeper.
It is difficult to give yourself permission to be at the center of your life- whether it is your career, family, community or even your personal life. However, this course is about you . I want you to translate the key concepts your from literature you review into a concrete personal level of understanding - Keep the focus on yourself. - Don't focus "out there" or about other things or things people "should" do. - Keep it Here & Now & what I now want to be or do about Tomorrow - Make an actionable commitment to Be and Do the things you want to sculpt for yourself. These require you write in the form of first person singular, which is "I" or "Me". Example 1 Typical non-personal approach leaving "your self" out: "Your sense of identity may be reinforced by others; or the feedback from others may create discrepancies and threats to identity."
How to personalize concepts. (Hint: take out references to others and put in "I".) A sentence format that will guarantee that you personalize your work is to say: "To improve my xxxx, I commit to doing yyyyy in the next zzz period." An extensive example is: I will note every day what people praise about me and what changes they ask in my behavior for the next two weeks. During this time I will meditate on what is "really me" and what is really "their projections" and I will make a conscious effort to pay attention to the parts of me that I do not like but I am willing to accept and make a commitment to change one negative aspect about me and honor the positive aspects of me as well as the "negative" parts I am willing to accept.
Example 2 "Being a versatile employee is an important job skill for you to have." This could be personalized by saying: I will become versatile by having an MBA with PC office computer literacy (spread sheet, word processing, graphics) and communication skills (Powerpoint, Photoshop) and small group leadership skills by within the next 6 months. ( A note of caution: Be careful not to over extend yourself by making many big longer term commitments. Trying a number of small short term commitments "on for size" to be considered later is fine for this course)
Example 3 Vince Lombardi. "Coaching For Teamwork" Executive Excellence deals with concepts of Vision; mental toughness; motivation; synergy; trust. "
This could be personalized by saying: My vision is........ The way I become more mentally tough is ........ One of the things I absolutely must do is...........(motivation) I can get more synergy in my life by .......... I trust myself when I .........
How would you personalize the following examples? 1. An important skill is "The capacity to feel yourself as a participant in the change process-- not as a controller, and not as a victim of it." (Campbell p.123)
2. "Workers of tomorrow will be working under minimum supervision. They will be expected to get the job done' on their own. They will need to be skilled at setting career and personal goals. They will need to be self motivated." (Boyett pg. 278)
What are the qualities of "good commitments"?
1) Reflects your learning of new material and how you have chosen to integrate that learning into your life.
2) Uses "I" type of statements not "you" or "one" or "they".
3) Focuses on what you want to do, promotes growth, and leads you to joy.*
4) Focuses on here and now or near here or near now.
5) Honors the good, true, and beautiful inside you, your inherent worth and dignity as you are now without stressing your inner critic.
6) Is specific, simple, doable with stretch, yet realistic, not grandiose or global.
(For this class, focus on a specific situation you now have and practice your commitment with it for a one or two week period. You may later want to extend it.)
7) Speaks to your values and encourages you to walk your talk. Does
not hide from the truth and will be done.
* Gets beyond concepts of sacrificing, living in the world of pain and "shoulds", and focuses on going towards your purposes in life that give you pleasure, and lead to your natural state of joy. Because of this, a commitment does not feel burdensome. If you must focus on that which is difficult, depressing, and distasteful, at least state the reward that you will ultimately receive as a result.
Examples of statements having the qualities of "good commitments":
a) I will look into a mirror every day for the next two weeks and say to myself "I am aperson worthy of love and I accept and love me just the way I am."
b) I will write for 20 minutes daily in my journal for the next week
about what I did really well that day and in what ways I could have done
better.
My commitments to the class are as follows:
1) I will hold the vision for the class each week and facilitate your focusing on this vision in your discussions and writing. (The vision is the philosophy & objectives.)
2) I will interact with you and your papers every week promptly.
3) Every week I want to have fun learning from you and will engage you in a provocative, respectful way while modeling many of the concepts of wise management.
4) I will do frequent process checks with you to make sure I am keeping my end of the agreement so that I will receive a grade of "A" in the final student evaluations while maintaining the integrity of the course.