Fidelity

One of my favorite storytellers, Martin Shaw, says that things become holy by the attention we give them. He speaks about fidelity as being or creating ceremony. I think as creatives, we have to have that in some way. Dedication. Devotion. To our craft, and also to ourselves – in the showing up. In the doing of the thing. Day after day. Or whenever we said we would.

I’ve been thinking a lot about commitment and perseverance lately. When we commit to something, we make an agreement to do the thing. Perseverance is the action, the adherence to the plan for the thing we committed to, regardless of the obstacles in the path, so it comes to fruition.

More often than not, it seems people find it easier to keep commitments that are made to others, while giving themselves more leeway and wiggle room. For example, if someone made an appointment with us, we’d keep it. If they were waiting for a particular aspect of our project, we’d persevere and get it done. But when the commitment is only to ourselves, we’re more apt to let ourselves off the hook if we had a busy day or “reasons” (insert your favorite here). After all, if we break a commitment to ourselves, who would know? Who would know if we skipped creating that day, or cut our workout short, or had that extra glass, or didn’t read that article we’re commenting on, or put off that personal task or fun, etc.? Who would know if we didn’t do that thing we’d told ourselves we’d do that was just for us and our creative endeavors?

We will.

WE will know. And whether we are aware of it or not, we program our own consciousness daily with our thoughts and actions (or lack thereof). When we blow off the commitments we make to ourselves, we are programming our consciousness with the message that we don’t mean what we say. Our reasons behind this lack of follow through vary, and in many cases are quite personal and possibly even unexplored. But sometimes, the reason is obvious. We just don’t want to do it. That’s not always a bad thing.

In his Moral Letters to Lucilius, Seneca wrote:

“Anything that must yet be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness. For anyone would call it a sign of foolishness for one to undertake a task with a lazy and begrudging spirit, or to push the body in one direction and the mind in another, to be torn apart by wildly divergent impulses.”

Sometimes it’s good to stop and ask ourselves a few questions so we have clarity around the commitments we choose to make. Of course, there is the obvious, “Why am I doing this?” And then, if it’s actually something we want to do or get done, looking at what’s behind our reluctance to do it, and really sitting with the answers, can be powerful. The answers here can help guide our next steps in becoming who we want to be. This is vital because how we show up comes from who we are. Who we be.

So, who do we want to be? Who do we NEED to be, or become, to achieve that thing? For example, if we want to write a novel, we need to be or become someone who consistently shows up and gets the scenes down. Everyone does that in a different way – each person has their own lives after all, so it makes sense to have your own process. Some people write for word count, some for time, some by scene. Some people write every day, others only write on weekends. Some write in short bursts, some need hours of uninterrupted time.

Do you!

Find your way, do your thing. If it’s really something you want to do, the important thing is to DO IT. Follow through on that commitment you made to yourself. Show up, and do the thing you said you would do to help move your art, or your dream, or that thing forward. Momentum is built with action. Attention. Focus. Let’s go.