The Commitment of Success - 'Tribes' Review pt. 5

"If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either." This quote from Seth Godin seems to be pretty self evident.  But if you think about the reality of most organizations, or blogs, or dreams, or books, or websites, or ministries, or churches, or marriages you find that most people expect the success to come either before the commitment or right alongside of it.

What we often see as a instant hit, or overnight sensation, is more often than not a success built on years of practice, failure, experimentation, and commitment.  We have this bizarre thought that success will come if we have the right idea, or if we just know the right person.  Sure it can come this way, but the overwhelming majority of success (in any area) comes from years of hard work and commitment.

I'm almost 3 years into marriage and I'm finding that commitment really is the key to any sort of success.  It's one thing to say 'I do' at the wedding and a completely different thing to live that out everyday.  It takes commitment to my wife and to our relationship to make our marriage a success.  If there is no commitment the relationship would completely fall apart.  And it wouldn't be due to a lack of love, it would fall apart because not being committed is always easier than being committed.

And I think that is the crux of the matter, commitment is hard.  Whether you commit to a diet or to Christ, it is difficult to stick to the commitment in the hard times.  We almost always opt for what is easier and most times that means we opt for the option that requires the least commitment.  We even do this with our meals, we'll opt for fast food over cooking a simple meal because its easier, it takes less commitment.  We choose to get divorced instead of working out the problems in our relationship because it is easier.

We need to send the idea that success comes before commitment for a long walk off a short cliff.  It's time to reset our point of view and settle in for the hard work.  If we are to do all things as for Christ, then we best have a conviction for commitment.

How do you view commitment and success?