On Commitment and Quitting! Not Today Blog 45

I like to commit to a thing and plan my life around it. To get to the bottom of something, I have to experience it from start to finish. I don’t learn my lessons at the destination but on the way there. Full commitment means never quitting.

Commitment: Signing Up and Having a Deadline

Two months ago, I registered for a dragon boat race. The race will take place on 27 November. Training sessions are scheduled every Saturday until the event.

With my registration, most of my weekends were blocked. This was right when covid cases in Indonesia decreased and travelling was back on the table. I was itching to get out of Jakarta for the first time in 2021. The obvious choice was to go visit my sister in Bali.

Committed to Saturday practise I decided to fly out to Bali on the first flight on Sunday morning and stay until Wednesday. This way I would miss out on a Saturday and potentially a Friday night in Bali. That means I would miss a whole day of beach clubs, restaurants and drinks in Canggu.

But having a deadline made my decision easy. Committing to a thing gives me purpose. I knew I had all the weekends in the world to get drunk in Bali after the race.

Missing out often entails gain. How am I supposed to know what something might be good for if I don’t go all-in?

Every phenomenon experienced fully from the beginning to the end produces wisdom.

David Hans-Barker

Quitting: Always Be Closing

At the beginning of the year, my friend Janik and I launched our campaign for our row across the Atlantic. During one of our meetings, I committed to uploading one personal post to our social media every Saturday. I haven’t missed one.

It doesn’t matter to me how shitty the thing is I have committed to. As long as I know there is an end date, I can go the distance.

But there is the other side of commitment. Finishing.

I started my apprenticeship as an electronics technician in September 2012. I hated it after one month of training. It felt like I was in the wrong place working with the wrong people. I could have quit.

I knew that I could shorten my training period from 3.5 years to 3 years if I did a half-decent job. And that’s what I did. I decided to pull through. Three years later, on the dot, I walked out as a skilled electronics technician. Not because I was good at what I did, nor because I had suddenly developed a passion for bus systems, phase angle control or C++ programming, but because I wanted to finish. I had made a decision.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.

Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Was it good for something?

Over the course of three years, I saved 8000 euros, which paid for the first 5 ½ months of a 12-month backpacking trip.

I am now a qualified tradie, which means a secure job in Germany, as there has been a shortage of skilled workers in recent years. So, if things go south, I have a Plan C (++).

I’ve learned a bit about electronics.

I’ve learned what I wouldn’t want to do if I had the choice.

And, I learned to not be a quitter.

Would I do it again? Only for a world record.

Johnny Ward

Why Not Today?

One of my favourite Casey Neistat videos is “Losers and Closers”. In the video, he says: “Someone who starts something and doesn’t finish something that is a loser. Someone who starts something and always finishes it that is a closer.”

“Always be closing” is tattoed on his forearm.

Is there something that needs finishing in your life? Something that you have started but never brought to an end? Why not pick it up again and get it done?

Why not today?

Who knows what lessons are left to learn?

D