A hardy personality can help you weather the storms that stressful situations can bring. It is not the stress itself that moves us to burnout, it is how we react to the stress. Since hardiness can be learned, why wouldn’t we look into creating and strengthening it within us?
Photo credit: Irina Patrascu
One key quality of a hardy personality is commitment.
Without commitment it is too easy to abandon what you need to do when the situation becomes difficult. Nothing of significance is accomplished without commitment because anything worth doing is going to be difficult at some point. If you want to work through the stressful situations that are inevitable, you need to have commitment.
What can you do to have more commitment?
Work With a Sense of Purpose
Commitment requires purpose.
Success gurus say you need to determine your “why” to be successful. Why is it important for you to make this accomplishment? The stronger your “why” the stronger your commitment to finish is likely to be.
Use Goals
Commitment requires a defined path.
If you were driving to nowhere in particular, it would be difficult to continue in a specific direction without a destination in mind. This would be especially true if the travel conditions got rough. You would quickly make a turn to get on a path that had better conditions. This is also true about work without a clear vision and goals.
Move Forward
Commitment requires starting and continuing forward motion.
Having a purpose gives you a strong reason to commit to the task. Setting and using goals gives you the tasks that to be done one step at a time. But they are not enough. You need to start and continue to make progress, regardless of the obstacles.
“The difference between a man or a woman who changes the world forever and one who does nothing is not the possession of a dream, but the courageous pursuit of it.”
— Pastor Daniel Floyd in Living the Dream: Uncover the Plan. Fulfill Your Purpose.
Getting started is usually the most difficult challenge for an effort that is outside your comfort zone. Be courageous and take the first step. Once you take the first step, focus on taking the next step. Be deliberate in what you do.
By focusing on a step at a time, you will not be overwhelmed. This will also help you avoid being stressed about the unknown, the future.
Work with a sense of purpose, use goals, and move forward are three practical techniques you can implement to start forming a more hardy personalty through commitment. Are there additional things you would add that would help foster commitment?
