I’m a commitment kind of girl.

I’ve run two half marathons.

I had a drug-free child birth.

I went against conventional wisdom and fought my cancer with alternative therapies.

And that’s my husband and me at our wedding 3 years ago.

Commitments are my THING.

There are 6 commitments you MUST make this year! I have made them for the past few years and they have led to many BIG changes in my life. In fact, starting Green Drink Diaries was one of my commitments last January, and here you are reading it!

COMMIT to at least one of these 6 commitments in 2012, and you’ll have plenty of reasons to be thankful! You’re in for a fun, self-exploratory ride with me: setting goals and envisioning what you will accomplish this year!

Commitments are ELEMENTARY!

If you walked into my 4th grade classroom, you would currently find the above commitments on the board in the front of my room. My entire classroom behavior system is based on commitments and agreements. We change them after they are met and go back to them if we begin to fall back, but they are always in our minds and in our line of sight. We review our commitments at the beginning and end of everyday and decide what we need to do next to move on with our goals.

I do this with my students because learning to make and meet commitments teaches drive and motivation. It teaches them to self-reward and to push the limits of what others say is “grade level” or “age appropriate.”

Although cliche’, rules are “made to be broken.” Commitments are made to be achieved. You either achieve them or you don’t. You feel good about yourself or you don’t. You are proud of yourself or you’re disappointed.

Some of my students can only focus on one commitment at a time, others love making more and more as they accomplish them.

We are all 4th graders at heart: some of us will focus really well on one commitment, while others will get REALLY into it and start working towards 3 at a time or even more. You will learn what kind of “commitment maker” you are through this series.

You NEED to focus and reflect on 6 kinds of commitments this year. Over the next few days we will learn about each one and search ourselves for which area we want to focus on the most this year. We will also discuss strategies of how to deal with habits and make real changes in your life!

**Our SIX Essential Commitments***

Physical:Physical commitments have to do with bodily improvement. Exercise goals are common in this category, but it could also be any other ways you need to take care of your body, such as seeing a dentist or doctor, scheduling a surgery you’ve been avoiding, or perhaps changing to a more holistic practitioner to begin taking care of your body rather than treating your symptoms!

Nutritional: The food you choose to nourish your body with is certainly physical, but this area is so important I gave it its own category. I look at this from a very stripped-down  perspective. The food you eat makes up your body. Bread doesn’t nourish, pasta doesn’t nourish, sugar doesn’t nourish, packaged foods rarely nourish. And yet we are surprised when we get cancer, develop neurological problems, have anxiety and depression, and gain weight “for no reason?”

Educational: How are you going to further your “think tank” this year? Don’t settle for what you learned in high school or college. You MUST keep educating yourself. Become and expert at something new. This area is easy to accomplish, as it can overlap with some of the other categories.

Relational: This one is simple. It has to do with interacting with people. Some of us our introverts, some of us are extroverts. If you’re like me you’re sorta both,  a “verbal introvert” as a good friend recently classified me. Your commitment for this could be career oriented, friend oriented, dating oriented, or activity oriented.

Financial: I probably don’t have to do too much explaining here. We all need to simply “give first, save next, and live on the rest.” (thanks for that one, Andy Stanley!) In this wild economic time we have to look inward and examine why we are spending more than we have. I will offer several resources to help you do this, but I’m warning you, this is the toughest one because it’s really an issue of the heart.

Spiritual/Emotional: Coping with anger, depression, anxiety, self- esteem issues, handling stress, etc is a constant effort. We must be aware of negative thinking habits that lead to harmful chemical reactions within our body. Without going into overly scientific ranting, I hope to help give ideas for improving this aspect in your life by using examples from my own and what I learned through my own struggle with negative thinking and how FAITH filled a void I didn’t know I had. 

‘TIS THE SEASON TO  SHARE!

The most helpful tool in meeting our commitments is by sharing them. What you all need to is SHARE this series with your friends and get them reading and partaking. Send emails and post it as your Facebook status. It is much harder to succeed if we are not being held accountable! You can ask my 4th graders. My really motivated kids choose to write their commitments on the front of the board each day and make it PUBLIC!

The “comments” section of my blog is open to sharing your own commitments for 2012. At the end of each month, I will have a “Commitment Roll Call” and we can all update and share. I will be first one up to admit what I did achieve and make a game plan for the ones I didn’t!

Join us tomorrow!