Commitment Inventory
I’m a pretty loyal person. When it comes to products, I find a brand I trust or like and stick with it. I align myself with organizations and causes that I believe in, and I invest my effort and energy there for extended periods of time. I remain close friends with my college buddies that I met in the dorms. And when I commit to something I make it a point to follow through. While this has served me well over the years, I recently have been exploring some of the drawbacks to this character trait. There are things that I probably hold onto for too long, commitments that have run their course and opportunities I miss by staying with what works for me. Time is perhaps our greatest resource and every day we get to choose how we spend those 24 hours. Last week I took a moment to do a commitment inventory. I realized it was time for me to evaluate the obligations in my life to ensure that they aligned with my values and my goals for the future.
I started by mapping out five categories:
Work - What requires my time and energy so I can have the biggest impact?
People - Who am I committed to spending time with?
Interests - What do I enjoy doing that adds richness to my life?
Boards/Organizations - How do I want to serve others and my various communities?
Adult Obligations - What do I need to do to ensure financial and emotional security for my family?
In each of these categories I made a list of the items that currently consume my time, energy or attention. I circled the top three items in each category where I spent the most time. I then took time reviewing my top core values and my personal goals for the future. Finally, I rated each item on the list on a scale from 1-5. 1=This item is no longer serving my values and goals, 5 = this is fully in line with my values and goals. As I reviewed the list it started to become clear which items were truly important and which ones I was holding onto. While many of the places I was spending a lot of time ranked in at 4’s and 5’s, the areas that had 1’s and 2’s were eye-opening. I found that there were a handful of commitments that I was continuing to do out of a sense of obligation. There were things on the list that at one time were critical to my growth but now don’t drive nearly the same value. And there were things missing from the lists that I need in order to get where I want to go.
When everything is important, nothing is important and this exercise was a good reminder of that for me. Taking stock of all of the things that demand my time and energy and putting it on paper was a great visual to see just how many commitments I have. Sometimes less really is more and creating a plan to focus on being intentional about fewer commitments was a necessary step I had been avoiding.
I encourage you to take 30 minutes this week and do your own commitment inventory. Ask yourself the following questions: Do your commitments align with your values? What are you spending time doing that is no longer serving you? What needs to change in order for you to accomplish your goals for the future? It may confirm a hunch about something you’ve been feeling or confirm you are on the right path. Either way I hope it brings a bit clarity to you like it did for me!