Over Commitment

“Commit only to the things that you can accomplish under favorable pressure. Over commitment gets you screwed-up and makes you a good-for-nothing individual”

Let’s begin with a story:

Once upon a time there lived a boy who was very good at giving commitments. Able to give commitments was like a child’s play to him and the resultant was that lot of time the commitments were given without any thought. Though he had the full intentions to honor those commitments and promises but as the deadlines approached he felt very much stressed out, anxious and completely overwhelmed with the task. While behind his mind he made plans on how to accomplish his tasks in the given time amongst all the other tasks. Being a human we have only 24 hours to utilize and not all the task that we think of can be accomplished within a day. (Managing your time efficiently is damn important- Be sure to read my blog on “Time-Management” to be able to inculcate this in your life). At times he was able to accomplish his task but most of the time he failed to fulfill them because of more work and less time. The quality of work in such a case resulted to him being impoverished along with withdrawal of himself from those tasks. At the end, he failed to honor his commitments. In such a scenario, people stopped trusting him with the commitments and his reputation dwindled. He lost his self-confidence thinking he is not capable to fulfill his commitments.

So what was the Problem here?

Disease: Over-Commitment

Symptoms:

1. You might fail to meet deadlines.
2. Your work quality isn’t at the mark it is supposed to be.
3. You feel that being the brightest student all your life, you fail in your career.

Cure:

If you find this in your life then keep reading this till the end to find out the 5 ways by which you can beat the problem of over commitment:

· Know your priorities:

Priorities are the back bone of understanding your important tasks for the day and avoiding the un-important tasks. It’s easy to achieve the set goals, if you have your priorities distinguished according to your goal and it would help you to achieve success. You should have priorities set in every aspect of life- like for yourself, your family, your friends, work etc. To deploy your time coherently it’s paramount to set priorities in accordance to your goal. The upshot of which would lead you to be more focused and enthusiastic at your work. In such a scenario, all your commitments, obligations and responsibilities will have a context and you will have a clear vision of your path to success.

· Learn to say “NO”:

“Live your life for yourself and not to please others”.

At times, we are at a level that the amount of work that we have taken up on our platter has reached the maximum limit but still it becomes difficult to say a “No”. In such a scenario, we are over promising and under delivering. When you have a high set of self- respect and self- value, you are bound to set boundaries for yourself – following which you would decline if a particular thing doesn’t fall in your set regulations. If you don’t have the courage to say a NO then you would fail and people only remember failures rather than successes. The choice is yours whether you would start saying “NO” or start failing terribly.

Warren Buffett proffers that- “When making an investment decision I would always say a “No” first because that opens up an opportunity to get back and say a “Yes”.

· Start Delegating:

“The more you are effective in delegating the things, the more are your chances towards success.”

The more the people are prone to over committing, the more they are reluctant to delegate things. The mindset of these kinds of people is that if they delegate they would lose control and command over things and they end up doing everything on their own. As a result they are able to perform only limited amount of work as the burden of tasks are more and hands to work are less. If we could do everything on our own then why do we require team and a team effort to complete a task? So be reliable, trust and delegate the tasks to make a way for more opportunities to dive into your life.

· Make good choices:

“We are the product of choices that we make.”

Every decision that we made helped us to be the person that we are today. Make thoughtful decisions and choose the option that would help you to grow as well as achieve success & goals. Ask yourself two questions before you take any decisions.

1. How realistic it is to take up new opportunities?

2. Whether it is important in the light of the obligations that you have got?

These will help you to solve many of your queries and make things clear. Watch your schedule and the available time you have closely. Free up the spaces by removing the undesirable things to pave a way for new opportunities.

· Avoid the last minute commitments

When we see our calendar- it’s a visual description of all the standing and upcoming events that are coming our way and moment we see some blank spaces, we are tempted to give commitments. When we are giving commitments just make sure to see all the responsibilities that are expected out of you in that commitment. Also be sure of the time that would be required to invest and ask yourself whether the task that you’re taking up would contribute to your personal development in any way. Question yourself whether it’s going to align with your goals that you have set for yourself. Amidst all this hustle and bustle, we skip or lose the time to rest and relax. Indeed, have a time slot booked just for you and your family.

Over commitment is a disease where you commit more than desired, feasible or obligatory. It would only make you to go through a lot of stress and depression. Commit for only those many things that you can take up and most importantly learn saying a “NO”.

Have an efficaciously committed day!