Commitment Law # 27

Commitment is best understood by realizing the first commitment, when you were given life. Have you truly accepted it? Re-evaluate what is involved in any act of Commitment.

           Cynthia F. Davidson, from the Wisdom Wheel Commitment card

     (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Can you commit to spending the next 10 days studying the Law of Commitment? What rating would you give yourself in the Commitment department? Do you keep your word 100% of the time? 50% of the time?

Consider a time when someone failed to honor a Commitment made to you. Then review another instance, when it was your failure, to keep a Commitment. 
What were the underlying reasons each time? 
Were they the same both times? 

What makes it difficult to keep our promises to ourselves, much less to others? And when we do keep them, what was different?
How much do we actually understand, about the Process, of making Commitments? 
Why do we even want them, in the first place? And what makes us break them so often? 

Being born with the ingrained fight or flight instinct may have something to do with our abilities to stay the course, especially in relationships where our obligations make us feel threatened, resentful or fearful. 
While emotions can certainly inspire our Commitments, as when couples get married, if there is no 'chemistry' to enhance the physical Commitment, and no shared spirituality to strengthen the Commitment over time, what will keep any two individuals together? 

In your real life, what is the most impressive Commitment you can think of?  If it's about a relationship between two people, make a list of qualities each person has, or had, which enhanced and preserved their Commitment. 

Now think about a person, place or thing you are very devoted to. Why have you stayed? Why did you stray, in the past?

As with each of these Laws, it is well worth bringing them up as conversation starters, with family and friends. You may learn quite a lot about how they see the world, and other people, as well as these values, like Commitment.

Here follow some quotes about the wisdom of Commitment.

The definition of the word commit is to “devote oneself unreservedly.” This means holding absolutely nothing back; giving 100 percent of everything… It means being willing to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes. This is the warrior’s way. No excuses, no ifs, no butts, no maybes—and failure isn’t an option.

T. Harv Eker from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

It isn't until you begin to fight in your own cause that you

(a) become really committed to winning, and

(b) become a genuine ally of other people struggling for their freedom.

Robin Morgan (1941 - ) activist and author books include Sisterhood Is Powerful

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

François de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French classical author

Commitment is never an act of moderation!

Kenneth Mills

To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.

James A. Baldwin

The uncommitted life isn't worth living.

Marshall Fishwick

A decision is made with the brain. A commitment is made with the heart. Therefore, a commitment is much deeper and more binding than a decision.

Nido Qubein (1948 - ) Arab American, world renowned motivational speaker and president of High Point University

We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. In none of the serious and important tasks of life do we arrange such a "getaway." We cannot love and be limited.

Alfred Adler

Marriage means commitment.  Of course, so does insanity. 

Author Unknown

Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return.

Cesar Chavez

Commitment is a line you must cross....it is the difference between dreaming and doing.

Bernie Fuchs

There have been more persecution and atrocities committed in the name of religion and religious freedom than anything else.

Walter Koenig

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me-spirituality and financially.

Denzel Washington

Visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person's vision may not be that of another. To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. How could a vision ever be given to someone if that person could not be trusted to carry it out. The message is simple: commitment precedes vision.

High Eagle

Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies.

Howard Thurman

In another 10 days, we'll take up the Law of Giving & Receiving, until then, re-examine the whys and wherefores of your Commitments.

Courage Law # 26

The Courage it takes to look one’s fears in the face can transform both the fear and the one who is afraid.  Take back the Power you have given to your fears.

Cynthia F. Davidson, from the Wisdom Wheel Courage card

  (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

What do you think takes the most Courage? 

Admitting you are wrong? 

Facing a terminal illness? 

Standing up to an enemy? Or to someone close to you?

Being honest, about your beliefs, when others disagree and you will be alone? 

Over a lifetime, we'll need all kinds of Courage, and during the next ten days, make it a point to experiment with as many types of this Law as you can. Think about your Courage and how it encourages others. And explore the opposite of Courage. What affects do your fears have, upon you, your friends and family. 

Sometimes we need mental Courage. Other times it's bodily Courage or  spiritual Courage we must draw upon. And then there is the Courage of the heart. 

When our hearts are not in something, we lack Courage and lose heart too easily. The word Courage comes from coeur, the French term for the heart. This implies that true Courage is an inner strength, not dependent upon big muscles, or well developed intellects.

   

Take the time to make a list of courageous acts you admire, and ones you have taken part in. 

Who do you know, in your personal life, who has exhibited the most Courage? What made them so courageous?  

When you look ahead to your future years, what (do you believe) will require the most Courage from you? From others?

Courage can also makes us foolhardy, if it is the boastful sort of bravado that incites others and causes trouble. We know about quiet Courage, but it also requires considerable Courage to get out there, or to get up on the stage (or TV) in front of people, knowing you'll be criticized, behind your back.  

Here are some insights from experiences with Courage.   

The most salient mark of a creative person... is not physical courage... it is a personal courage, a courage of the mind and spirit, psychological or spiritual courage that is the radius of a creative person: the courage to question what is generally accepted; the courage to be destructive in order that something better can be constructed; the courage to be open to experience both from within and without; the courage to imagine the impossible and try to achieve it; the courage to stand aside from collectivity and in conflict with it, if necessary; the courage to become and to be oneself.

D.W. MacKinnon

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage in an untrained mind leads to cruelty, and in a trained mind it leads to hope and compassion.

P.J. Saher in Zen-Yoga

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

The man with outward courage dares to die; the man with inward courage dares to live.        
Lao Tzu

Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

Maya Angelou

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain

Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

Rollo May

The bravest of individuals is the one who obeys his or her conscience.

J. F. Clarke

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.

Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.

Mahatma Gandhi

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

Atticus Finch, character in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird

It takes courage for a person to listen to their own goodness and act on it.  Do we dare to be ourselves?  This is the question that counts.

Pablo Casals, cellist and humanist

The law of Courage is about the 
ability to not only face a danger but to risk an action to defuse that danger. When action is taken, fear departs. …Courage is a quality of an evolved soul in manifestation…its deficiency being cowardice and its vice, excess recklessness. …Courage is one of the four cardinal virtues, along with prudence, justice and temperance.

Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D.

In ten days, we'll take up the 27th Law of Commitment, until then, be of good Courage. 

Creativity Law #25

...the Great Creator bestows all gifts of insight, genius, artistic ability and truly elegant solutions. Problems can be solved and ideas can flow through inexhaustibly if we honor our Creativity… Share your creation stories.

Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpt from the Wisdom Wheel Creativity card 

  (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

How creative are your ideas about 'Creator'? If you still have the same image you were given as a child, you might want to jump start your Creativity by getting more imaginative about 'God', the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery to begin with.  

After the Law of Enlightenment last week, it is time for Creativity, Courage and Commitment this month. These three line up beside the Law of Right Action. This implies that Right Action is unlikely without Creativity. Likewise, creative ideas never come to fruition unless we have the Courage and Commitment to see them through.

    

When have you felt the most creative? 

Who around you has kept their creative spark alive? How? 

And who has succumbed to cynicism and sarcasm? 

What has inhibited your Creativity? 

What can you do about this right now?

What are you afraid of?  

During the coming ten days, have some fun with this Law. Loosen up. Laugh with others and at yourself. Have creative toys, tools and games around to involve others. Wear a red clown nose, put on a funny hat, make people smile.   

Creativity includes giving yourself permission to play when it's called for, and many studies have proven it enhances our productivity. 

Make a list of the most creative people you can think of and why you've chosen them as examples of this Law in action. In our capitalist society, the individuals 'rewarded' with the most pay per day are actually the people who do make believe for a living, such as actors, like Tom Hanks, who customarily get $20 million per movie, for about 6 weeks worth of work. 

Creativity is contagious. It inspires the rest of us, so be as creative as you dare, for the next ten days. Maybe you'll like it and never go backwards. Here are some insights to feed your Creativity.  

Some people think of creativity as something that artists possess. It might be more helpful to think of it as Jung did, as an instinct. We can bring creativity to almost every life activity. Moreover, we can use certain imaginative forms of creative expression through the arts to explore personal, spiritual, and psychological development.

Marion Woodman and artist Jill Mellick in Coming Home to Myself: Reflections for Nurturing a Woman's Body and Soul

The creative process, so far as we are able to follow it at all, consists in the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and elaborating and shaping the image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life.

Carl Jung

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

Albert Einstein

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things."

Ray Bradbury

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

Creative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad training.

Anna Freud

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

Edward Hopper

True creativity quite simply starts with balancing your emotions and activating the power of the heart. Through practicing emotional management from the heart, you tap into the highest form of creativity possible--recreating your perceptions of reality.

Doc Childre

Everybody dreams, wishes and imagines but one needs to understand how this works in order to be creative. The imagination can be described as a screen that lies between the visible and the invisible worlds, and images and entities are projected on this screen that we are normally unaware of in our field of consciousness. Those who have a developed imagination are able to use this faculty of imagination, to receive and to record these impressions, which they then try to express or describe or realize on the physical plane.

Margo Kirtikar, PhD.

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.

Marc Chagall

Man is creative only when he is neither apologetic nor propagandistic.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72)

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. 

Scott Adams

Without continuous creation, the Universe must evolve toward a dead state in which all the matter is condensed into a vast number of dead stars.

Fred Hoyle in The Nature of the Universe (1950)

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Creativity is harnessing universality and making it flow through your eyes.

Peter Koestenbaum

Creation does not take place where there is a scattering and a dissipation of energies.  Creation requires a gathering together and a focusing of your power within a circle of commitment – like a seed, an egg, in a womb, or a marriage. 

Ken Carey in Return of the Bird Tribes from White Buffalo Calf Woman

Losing touch with spirit does nothing to the field of creativity, which is beyond harm; but it can do much to damage a person's chance in life.

Deepak Chopra

For a cultural transformation to occur, it must be imagined first.  All reform movements are fed by those who are good at writing songs and telling us a new kind of story and teaching us to believe in ourselves.

Carol Lee Flinders books include Rebalancing the World

Creativity, when all is said and done, may be the best thing our species has going for it. It is also the most dangerous….When we consider creativity we are considering the most elemental and innermost and deeply spiritual aspect of our beings. Imagination brings about not just intimacy but a big intimacy, a sense of union with the cosmos, a sense of belonging and being at home, of our knowing we have not only a right to be here but a task to do as well while we are here.

Matthew Fox former Catholic priest dismissed by the Dominican Order for being too radical, is now an Episcopal priest

The more creative you are, the more creative you are. This law is simple - creativity breeds creativity. Being creative is all about flow, and as soon as you hit your stride in creating, it becomes so effortless you forget you're even doing it. But, like rolling a giant snowball, it seems incredibly difficult to get that momentum started, especially if you haven't created regularly for a while.

Dan Goodwin

In ten days we'll take up the Law of Courage. Till then enjoy your Creativity.