Encouraging Words

The Secret to Going the Distance . . . Is Really No Secret

The “C” word sends a chill down many spines. The “C” word I am referring to is Commitment and it takes you beyond the point of no return.

If the fruition of your vision of a life worth living awaited you at the top of a mountain, would you have the commitment to traverse the unknown elements between here and there and go the distance?

The metaphorical mountaintop experience we seek can be different for us all: It could be the completion of a college education, or the realization of the career we have long desired. It might be honoring a diet or exercise program long enough to see the results we desire manifest. It could be learning how best to just get through another day by managing a debilitating emotional or physical problem in a manner that allows us to stay connected to a life of purpose and meaning.

For many of us, the mountaintop for which we dream and strive is a deeply rewarding relationship with a lifetime partner. It doesn’t much matter what mountain peak we seek because the power of commitment is equally applicable (and available) to every area of our lives—and it is the power that will get us to the top.

Over the span of my adult life there have been numerous occasions when I found myself “waffling in the wind” on some commitment I was about to make, or perhaps had already made, and I needed a “sign” to assure me I could do the right thing and go the distance. Sometimes we need a hero or two who have demonstrated the power of commitment in their own lives to show us the way up the mountain. My heroes were my parents, Russ and Evelyn Jones. Up until almost the time they both passed at 95 years young, Mom and Dad were still like a couple of Energizer bunny rabbits . . . and had been able to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary together a few months prior. Anyway you slice it, creating and sharing a life together for over 75 years is a tremendous example of commitment to an idea that was larger than either of them as individuals. I happen to know firsthand that although they stumbled more than a few times on the many pathways of uncertainty we traveled as a family, they always found the courage, wisdom, and strength to pick themselves up and continue their journey up the mountain with four wild children in tow. That’s what the power of commitment does; it is bigger than our obstacles and it sees us through our uncertainties and the temptations to stop short and pitch a tent before we reach the top of our personal mountains—it’s what keeps us keeping on long after others have pulled off the path and set up camp in the foothills of unfulfilled dreams.

By example, what I learned from Mom and Dad is that regardless of what your personal mountain may be, and wherever you may be on the pathway at this moment, there is something within you that knows how to get you to the top if you do your part. What is your part, you might ask.

“The pathway to the top of the mountain is lined with campsites along the way, occupied by those who yielded to the resistance of walking the path of uncertainty and who weren’t able to embody the deeper meaning of commitment to going the distance.”

~ Excerpt from The Art of Uncertainty–How to Live in the Mystery and Love It

• FIRST, enter each day with faith and an awareness of your oneness with a higher power that is larger than yourself—call it God, the Buddha, Nature, the Christ, Life, Infinite Intelligence, the Universe, or whichever word has meaning to you.

• SECOND, approach your chosen pathway with a persistency that has no off switch (like the Energizer Bunny).

• THIRD, to echo the words of author Steven Covey, you must “begin with the end in mind”: persevere in holding a vision in your mind’s eye that gives purpose and meaning to your life by seeing yourself standing on the mountaintop.

• LASTLY, connect with the passion for life that lives in your heart. Passion is the energy that will bring you to the edge of all you know—it becomes the bridge that spans the gap between where you are on the pathway and where you want to be.

When combined, these four things comprise the essence and power of commitment that will take you where you may have never gone before.

What I know is this: Irrespective of the personal mountain you might be climbing, the view of your life from the top is unparalleled. You can take a gentle gaze back and see down the pathway from whence you have come with the pride and satisfaction of knowing that you stayed the course . . . you went the distance. These mountaintop moments are among the sweetest experiences you shall ever have in your life, and they are the moments most worth pursuing. Commitment is, and always has been, the secret to going the distance; it’s a choice we get to make daily. Commitment is a prerequisite in creating a life worth living, and it’s a power that is no further from you than your next thought, and then the next thought, and then the next thought, followed, of course, by a corresponding action.

Begin with the end in mind, indeed . . . But most importantly, just begin.

Peace, Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones

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