Commitment is Key
Commitment Is Key
On Monday, I shared the story of my two clients who are not only getting financially healthy but they are also about to get married. This Saturday is my 11-year wedding anniversary, so just about 12 years ago; I was at the same starting point as my clients are now.
The Day My Commitment Officially Began
I will never forget the day that hubby (then boyfriend) proposed to me, it was on a random Thursday night, and I was coming home from a work dinner with most of my belongings in the car, as I was officially moving in with him. I walked through the door of what was to be my future home only to find him standing there in a room full of flowers and candles wearing a suit.I immediately figured that he put on this show to welcome me home, but realized his true intentions when he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. My immediate response was, “What?!!?” In my defense, I was so surprised (which was what he intended) because we had never really discussed marriage in depth before this as I didn’t want to frighten him. Little did I know that he was thinking about it all along.
How My Commitment Has Evolved
Fast-forward almost 12 years and a lot has changed since that random Thursday night in our loft in Atlanta, Georgia. We have moved six times, lived in eight homes over three states. We have one child after having one miscarriage. We have shared thousands of laughs and hundreds of tears.We have fought, we have said the word “divorce” more times than I care to think, and yet at the end of the day, I always want to come home to him. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about making a commitment and working on it no matter what happens around you.Marriage is not perfect, but it is the perfect example of your commitment to something, and when two people are committed to something, they can do anything together. We can all set goals, make budgets, dream big dreams, yet we cannot all really commit to making these a reality. It’s one thing to say it, and an entirely other thing to make it happen.
My Commitment to Top Tens
This time last year I celebrated my 10-year wedding anniversary by sharing my top ten favorite wedding scenes, and I thought it would be fun to make the commitment to share a top ten list every Friday until our next anniversary. I thought this sounded like an easy commitment, yet I soon realized that there are no easy commitments.I can’t tell you how many lists I went through where it was easy to come up with 7 items but hell to find 3 more. When I originally started, I thought every list would be fun like Top Ten favorite flavors of ice cream or Top Ten hair bands, but then I challenged myself and created lists like Top Ten Ways I Save Money or Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Credit Score. I worked harder on some of my top ten posts than I did on others during the week.There have been weeks that I didn’t feel like writing a top ten post, but then I would remember my commitment to my hubby and my commitment to my blog. I am happy to say that I have published 51 top ten lists as of today and on Friday I will publish my last planned list.
Commitments Lead to Accomplishments
Through all of the work and effort, I feel as though I accomplished something special. That’s the funny thing about commitments, you may not always be happy you made them, but you have to feel great about your results when you stick to them.In case you missed some of my top tens, here are a few of my favorites.
- Top Ten Gifts for $10 or Less
- Top Ten Year End Planning Musts
- Top Ten Movies About Money & Finance
- Top Ten Financial Goals for Anyone
- Top Ten Cheap Workouts
- Top Ten Fun Facts About Me
- Top Ten Reasons to Cut Cable
I hope that you are making a commitment to something or many things right now. It’s easy to say you’re committed in the beginning, just like when you get engaged; however, it gets harder as time goes on.If you stay committed to your goals, though, whether it’s marriage, savings, career, debt repayment or financial freedom, you will accomplish them over time and all of those hardships in between will feel insignificant when you look back and review your results.