Commitments and Adaptability

I recently took a break from writing my newsletter as it started to feel like something I needed to do vs something I truly wanted to do. This was mainly due to being completely overloaded with change.

I am the type of person who likes to take on more than I can manage to push my limitations, learn quickly, and accomplish more things more often. Over the years I’ve realized that doing more doesn’t always mean I’m achieving those goals. It might actually mean the complete opposite. So I decided to do a quick pulse check with myself - outlining my true priorities vs. where most of my energy was being spent. From there I decided to take a break from a few things (this newsletter included) that were not aligned with what I needed to prioritize at the time - i.e. I was facing burnout and needed a reset. The big realization was that I hated taking a break from this.

While it’s a bit of an overreaction to care this much about something as simple as a newsletter, it was more so the principle of making a commitment to myself that I ended up stepping away from. I felt like a failure. I’m come to realize that this principle may actually be an oversimplification/naive way to set ourselves up for our definition of success. What if things change?

Here’s an example: I set out a goal to write one new post every single week for this newsletter to spend more time doing something productive (writing). This is a very manageable goal however the original intent behind writing the newsletter fell out of my list of priorities. Things changed - I was facing burnout so I needed to change the way I was living my life. I decided that to get ahead of facing burnout, I needed to have fun rather than feel comfortable by being productive. Simple as that. Why should I feel like a failure if the commitment I set out for myself months ago does not align with my goals/priorities today? Shouldn’t I be able to adapt to these changes and feel accomplished when doing so?

Here’s my shift in perspective: I need to stick to the commitments I set out for myself (commitments that have others involved is a different conversation) no matter the circumstance —> Things change and if the commitments I’ve set out for myself do not align with my current goals/priorities, I need to adapt to those changes.

“Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.” - Mahatma Gandhi”

Matt