It is what you are committed to that makes you sparkle.

Seriously, unless you are 12, you have heard by now that New Year’s Resolutions don’t work. Every day is New Year’s when you think about it and most of us resolve something on Monday, only to forget about it by Thursday—all year long. So, the thing is, you’ve got to plan for the long haul if you really want your life to glow.

Instead of making a pie-in-the-sky Resolution in a boozy haze of fervent enthusiasm, why not pick one goal that matters and stick to it until it’s complete?

I know, it is not sexy to speak about commitment, but if you think about it, it’s the only way any of us get anything done. You say “I do” and then this commitment keeps you there long after the gifts have been forgotten and the laundry starts to pile up. A resolution to get married? You will stay single—guaranteed.

One cannot make a resolution to be a parent. We would be a pretty sore example of society with resolved caregivers of children or of our elders, for that matter.

Resolution means we simply make up our minds about something.

Well, honestly, between you and me, how many times do you change your mind before breakfast?

C’mon. If you were not committed to the care and well-being of your progeny, how long do you think that hopeful wish would work out? Right?

You would leave them at the Shelter along with the intractable dogs and nasty cats. Being a parent is hard! And living with any another human being in the mix always offers a host of surprises that you sometimes would rather not enjoy.

Ah, so herein lies the value of your commitment.

It goes along with your word, but it is more of a silent, middle of the night process than vocalizations in mixed company. You make a commitment when you don’t want to. When it is cold and you are barefoot and when things are dirty and falling apart. That is when the commitment really counts. Because that is when you see what grit and stamina mean.

My teacher, Yogi Bhajan was always on us about our grit, our back bone—what are we made of? Our training as yogis was all about our commitment to this one breath and this one kryia as a way to exemplify keeping up and keeping on keeping on in life beyond the yoga room walls.

I have found myself tested many, many times in my life, as you have too. It’s the part of being human that we signed up for, I think. Its why we even needed our Human Life Suits in the first place, because consciousness without limits has no way to experience itself, right?

It must experience itself in the lack of something in order to find the meat of it all. Consciousness must understand loss in order to appreciate the sweetness of gain. It must feel the sting of sorrow in order to glow in the warmth of love. We learn by experiencing the opposite of what it is that we think we must discover.

And in this, we share the fact that being human is hard, d*mn it and we need our community and inner-self to carry us through when our resolve has failed and all we are left with is our commitment in the face of crushing pain and tears running into our ears. We feel this commitment in our bones as we awaken every day and choose to live a life worth living.

We create meaning that is most valuable to the community of our choosing around us. We decide to hone and strengthen and support ourselves by any means possible, so that we can keep on keeping on when our legs are too numb to walk and our hearts are too numb to feel. We do it anyway. And this, dear friends, is why our commitment to ourself is the most important one we can ever hold.

From this one place of strength, we plant the seeds for our relationships and creative juice to follow. For without this one source, the rest may dry up as if dust in the hurricane.

So I ask you, fellow Journeyers in the dimension of 3D consensual reality- what are YOU committed to creating for yourself in 2015? And how can we all support you?

I desire your feedback, your response and your glow. It makes my world so much richer to have your Source and Self aligned

*relephant

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Author: Kristen Eykel

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: flickr