Stay committed to the process– Use the power of symbols

A symbol of commitment is like a ring, or a wedding ceremony. 

And the action of commitment is to commit. In fact, it’s keep committing. 

It’s keeping a state of committing. 

But why do we need a ceremony or a symbol for a commitment like a wedding or a ring for a marriage?

People say wedding is a declaration. It’s not for yourself but for others. The ceremony and the ring you carry mark you as an individual who has entered another social group from the groups of the singles.

But do they mean anything to you?

Commitment is for yourself after all. Really.

The wedding is like all the other ceremonies in life. It’s a rite of passage.

To you, as an individual who gets married now, this ceremony doesn’t mean that you personally, internally are committed already; it means that from this point on, you will behave committing, and start to be committed, and keep being committed.

The ring serves as a reminder to yourself of your commitment — being committed — this status. 

It’s the reminder of your wedding — that rite of passage, the monumental point of your life, where you’ve received that symbol of your status.

The ring is less about your partner who gave it to you than about yourself. Just like the ceremony.

That’s to say, if “you are having the wedding for yourself, not for others,” you can choose your own ceremony for yourself and your partner, and your own reminder of your commitment status.

You can even choose two different “tokens”, like the ones they use in the movie The Inception.

A bracelet. A keychain. Or even a golden tooth (if you think that’s pretty enough to be “romantic”). As long as it can endure a longer period of time, easy to take with you, and serves the purpose of being a physical reminder of your commitment.

Better to think about your commitment fondly when you look at it.

And since carrying a symbol of commitment is so powerful, you might consider choosing one for even your other endeavours, like your commitment to become a creator, an artist, or an outspoken person, an activist.

Don’t say that you don’t need a reminder.

Everything that worth doing takes a long time. It takes so long that you will forget you are still doing it or why you have started.

And the things that you don’t need to commit your time and energy to don’t need to be done at all.