slide for a short time, just make sure you aren’t putting yourself into a position where you
won’t reach ultimate success because your lifestyle stood in the way of achievement.
Friendships – Best friends can be as close as family – or even closer. Don’t let any
commitment come between you and them. Friendships are treasures. Again, you might
need to let your weekly Wednesday Poker night with your buddies slide for a while, but
don’t lose touch altogether.
Learning – will the commitment interfere with the learning you wish to do? Can you put
learning aside for a short time while you meet the commitment? Do you want to?
Spirituality – does the commitment go against any of your beliefs? Will it affect the amount
of time you are able to spend in worship, if that is your practice? Can you reconcile your
spiritual needs with your commitment?
There are many questions to ask, and some that you won’t be able to answer. Often we
trade off one area of our life for another in the short term, with a view to the longer term
advantage. That is quite acceptable, so long as the other people who are affected are told.
What if you’ve already made a commitment? Then stick to your guns. After all, you’ve given
your pledge. Let the significant people in your life know what is going on if you find that you
need more time for your commitment, so they understand why you are doing it, and that
you will return to them as soon as possible.
Commitment can be exciting, scary and breathtaking. Think of your feelings when you finally
leave your paid job for the first time, and are completely your own boss. Think about when
you got engaged, when you made that commitment to be with each other forever. Think
about when your child was born, and you suddenly found yourself with a commitment to
this tiny person for about the next 18 years of their life.
Embrace commitment. It’s something that can be of great benefit to people. But temper it
with understanding.
Confidence
In business, confidence is a complete necessity. If you project confidence - in yourself, in
your product, in your people – it will be noted by your prospective customers, and they will
be more inclined to buy from you.
You can project confidence without actually being confident. You can be confident in your
product without being confident in yourself.
Confidence in business is all about appearance. Of course, it’s better if you are confident in
yourself, your product and your team, but even if you aren’t (which you may not be when
you are just starting out, or after you’ve just weathered a bad storm) there are ways to
portray confidence: