“To make commitment a less heavy concept, keep in mind that, contrary to what we have been taught, it doesn’t necessarily mean forever,” Susan wrote in Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.
Susan wrote a lot about making sure that in whatever you are doing, you are 100% engaged, particularly in the aspects of your life that are important to you that you listed on your Grid of Life. Commitment, as she describes it, means consciously giving 100% to whatever it is that you’re doing. She wrote, “when you are at work, work full out, holding nothing back; when you are with your family, consciously be with them, 100%; when you are with friends, be there 100% . . . and so on.”
Committing to something doesn’t mean it has to last forever, but while it’s important to you, commit yourself 100%.
For example, Natalie was working at a job that she didn’t like. It was a position that was extremely stressful and unfulfilling, and it left her very unhappy. After a few years, she knew she needed to make a change. In the months leading up to her resignation, she prepared for someone else to step into her role. She worked with some colleagues to bring them up to speed on what she did. She created an instruction manual that described how to do her duties, and she engaged new vendors that would be easier to work with for whomever stepped into her role.
When the time came to give notice, she had a meeting with her boss. She told him that it was time for her to move on and that she’d been unhappy in her role at the company. Her boss was surprised to find this out and even said, “But you do such great work.” Natalie knew then, that she had done what she could and now could move on knowing that she’d done her best and had left her role in the company in a stronger position than she had found it.