The Joys Of An Invested Commitment.
How great would it be, if every time you looked back, you see something you finished
Morning beautiful people, I hope you’re all well?
Now I know, there’s been some radios silence in your inbox from me, and for that I duly apologise, but alas I have returned on this fine Monday with a little entry.
To be transparent with you all, the last few weeks have been incredibly difficult. For some reason everything just felt heavy, and in all my intentionally activity to slow down my life, and re connect with God, I found myself feeling even worse than before. I noticed a slight drag through my days, no longer do I eagerly get up to attack my day, but rather I roll out of bed— Well the floor since I got rid of my bed, and grunt my way through my morning. This of course spilled over to my writing, but recently I have given myself more and more room to make errors, and I’m far more accepting of these off days. I mean after all, we aren’t all machines, we are soul beings who feel, and sometimes those feelings tell you to stop.
I’ve been reading an incredible book by John Mark Comer; The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry, and it’s been refreshing to really get into the necessity or better yet the command of rest. This practice has been my obsession over the last few weeks. One I’ve been overjoyed to be leading with my book community. I share this all to say it’s ok to be present with yourself, when you need to recoup. After all, the time on the bench is equally necessary to your success when you’re back in the game.
So what’s the read today?
I don’t know, but first of all, today I woke up feeling great.
I’ve been trying to write less from a place of feeling and more from a place of dedication, what I mean by this is— not to only just write when I have something to say , but practice sticking to my commitments after I decide to do them. To you guys this means regularly showing up and writing in this diary of sorts, and to others, whatever I said I will do.
I’m not perfect at this, however I’m simply here to testify of the joys of invested commitment.
Over the last 4 or so months, I had been taking part in a writing accelerator programme, called the Phoenix programme, In a bid to meet one of my goals— To write a book. Every Tuesday we would meet, have writing sessions, seminars with authors and you know— Do all things writing.
Let me tell you the truth.
It was hard, dare I say mundane. Now the programme was absolutely incredible and I actually really enjoyed it, but the realisation of the length of my commitment after a few short weeks, made me question if I actually really cared about writing the way I say I do.
I envied those who came every Tuesday with high energy. I was jealous. I don’t know about you but personally, Tuesdays always feel like a second monday, and with the heaps of meetings and travelling I often have to survive, taking part in this programme was everything but counter productive.
Now, a few days weeks ago, we actually finished the programme, and what’s absolutely incredible is that we all got to write pieces about the topic of identity. And what was even more amazing was that it got published by Apple Books, and now I have writing credits in an anthology that will live in the wires of the internet for the rest of my life.
How incredible. No this piece wasn’t just made to promote this achievement, but genuinely, believe me when I say, I’m proud of it. Why? because it took everything for me to continue, but altogether now that I see the finished product, it feels worth it.
Go on, have a read
How great would it be, if every time you looked back, you see something you finished — that no one asked you to commit to— but you did, and you saw it through.
Imagine how great you would feel.
For many of us, we often look back and see the opposite.
Here’s why we need to—with all trembling— take seriously to see through, that which we started.
What’s the point I’m trying to make?
Well it’s simple.
Good things take time. In addition to that I will say, be prepared to hate parts of the journey. There are just things in life which we may not enjoy, but are required to do.
In case you missed it— Passion alone does nothing. You need commitment.
Ask yourself today, will you finish what you started, or are you more excited to tell people about what you’re doing? If your answer is the latter, then you better go do something easy, that will make no difference to the world. Unfortunately making your mark takes more than just writing your name in the sand, but more like burning a mark into the gravel.
It takes time, and in all truths, more moments where Joy doesn’t seem to exist.
I remember reading something I wrote a while back, and I smiled when I read it. It was so good! In fact so good that I thought “Na that can’t be me”.
And I’ll wrap up with that statement.
Learn to fall in love with the ugly parts of the beautiful things you’re building!
As sharp as it may seem, get used to persevering at things you don’t like. I mean how else do you build a muscle, but through sheer grit?
Happy Monday family,
And I’ll see you next week!
Josiah Hyacinth
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