On Commitment

Well, there’s a big idea!

Doing my regular reading online today, I came across a blog post by a Movement Mortgage officer from Naples, FL named Jonathan Garrick — who also happens to be a John C. Maxwell Coach. The post appeared on a very popular Facebook page “Real Estate Success Principles.”

For readers who don’t recognize the name, John Maxwell is a highly regarded longtime leader in teaching and coaching on the subject of leadership. I first became acquainted with his work while working with real estate education leaders like Gary Keller, Diana Kokoszka, Dave Jenks, and Jay Papasan at Keller Williams University in Austin.

OK, enough name dropping! But seeing the Maxwell credit next to the author’s name fueled my desire to share his thoughts, and mine, with you — on commitment.

We who teach real estate for agents and managers at any level of achievement always have thoughts and reflections on “commitment” ringing in our consciousness.

For me it’s reflections both about my own commitment to my love of learning and sharing, and it’s learning the commitment that’s needed to push any entrepreneur — in this case real estate agents — toward their personal and business goals.

Commitment that feels true and enduring is very hard to find. I search for it daily. I question my own a lot — maybe more than I should.

So what’s the test? How does one know where they stand on this critical virtue? Here’s what Jonathan Garrick says:

“Many people are more committed to comfort, committed to keeping things the way they are or “playing small” rather than actually going out and getting the results that they always “talk” about. I’m sure you know some of those people, maybe even a couple came to mind. They are not bad people, they are probably incredible human beings, they just can’t connect that “trying hard” and being committed are two totally different things.”

And then, his conclusion:

“Commitment is a place to come from. When you “come from” commitment, you know what you will do (or not do) regardless of what happens or doesn’t happen.”

Maybe I’ll share more thoughts about this soon. Right now I just want to put this big idea out there to you — so we can chew on it together.

Do I know what I will or won’t do, regardless of what happens in my daily travails, toward my goal of being an ever better teacher and coach?

Hmm.