How Committed Are You?

In my article, “I was miffed.” I commented on how, after only 3 weeks of Holidays and not having had shaved, I had, what I thought was a fairly impressive makings of a beard, but others didn’t. Then, in the follow up article, “Why are people Ignoring me now?” I mentioned how after a month back at work I had forgotten that I have only just regrown a beard and that most people I knew around here, but don’t see regularly, had never seen me with a beard before and so they simply didn’t recognise me until I spoke to them. I also mentioned that after 7 weeks I was now getting much more positive comments; So, now rather than being miffed I am quite chuffed and enjoying the compliments.

How about you? Do you enjoy compliments? If so, how hard are you prepared to work to get them? It is always nice to have your efforts appreciated, but often we are not prepared to do the hard yards to do so. In this Instant world we don’t like waiting minutes let alone weeks or months, yet, deep down, we know that most good things, if not all, take time to come to full fruition and maturity. Whether we like it or not, if we want something good, we simply have to put in all the effort and wait for it to come to fulfilment in its due time.

That is why we should always count the cost of everything we do, before we even make a start on something, to make sure the result is worth the effort.

Sometimes we do commit ourselves to some things, but with no real intent to see them through to the end. Like me with the beard! As I said, at the beginning I never really started out to grow one, but only decided to try it out when it seemed like it was becoming something reasonable, but now some 2 months plus later, I am beginning to wonder whether it was worth the effort and wonder aloud how much longer I will put up with it.

In my case my Beard was no real commitment nor no real cost or expense to me, but what about you? Is there some thing in your life that you would like to do?

Well count the cost before you start.

Is there something that you have started but are now starting to regret? Well count the cost of what it will cost you to either finish it or pull out completely.

There are some things in life that you can get away with without having counted the cost before hand, like my beard, but most things in life have a cost and we really should know them before we start, to avoid disappointment halfway through and having to quit and causing our cause more harm than if we had not started at all. This is also Biblical.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying. ”this fellow began to build and was not able to finish”. Luke 14: 28 – 30.

So what do you need to count the cost off? Either to see it through and avoid ridicule (& hopefully pick up a few compliments). Or on the reverse side, what do you need to cut your losses on and move on to a better and more thought out project? Over to you: Walter