Episode 1175: The Five Levels of Commitment

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,175 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Robert,

[00:00:08] Raymond Riopel: Raymond Riopel, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to improve consistently over time is key.

[00:00:26] And one of the ways to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:35] Scott Maderer: Interesting thing is you can be in the, whatever it takes level of commit. And the, I will do it. If I will do it in less, you can be in these high levels of commitment, even without a crisis, even without an emergency, even without a disaster, but it takes intentionality. It takes a [00:01:00] decision. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:01:06] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that. Can impact the world.

[00:01:27] In today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about the five levels of commitment. I also share how those five levels affect our approach to money. And I talk about why deciding upfront, what level of commitment you wanna make helps you actually make change.

[00:01:47] As we talk about stewarding your treasures. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra. Turns out you can't. All you have to do is use [00:02:00] inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show.

[00:02:09] If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When it comes to setting goals or achieving things, getting done, what you really wanna do or making a big change in your life. There's different levels of commitment that we have for those things. I, if you think about it, there's kind of five levels of contentment that the idea about a commitment is it's creating.

[00:02:44] A burden or a necessity or a feeling of certainty that something's going to be done. It's the idea of saying this is gonna happen. So if you think about it your lowest level of commitment is simply [00:03:00] no commitment at all. This is when something is simply a dream or a wish you want it to happen, but you're not really actively doing anything.

[00:03:10] The next level. From no commitment at all. That's where you don't want it at all to. I wish I wanted it. I hoped it would happen. And then the third level is you try something. I might be going to the. Activity. I might be starting a diet. I will try to lose weight or get my money in order.

[00:03:36] The fourth level is I will do it if, or I will do it in less. This is conditional commitment. I will go to the event in less event unless my favorite TV show is on that. Or I will do it. If everything works out that way, it's putting a condition under which you will achieve it. [00:04:00] And the highest level of commitment, the fifth is the whatever it takes level the wit level, the unconditional I'm going to make this happen no matter what.

[00:04:13] And often what has to happen to really make a change in something big? Like our finances are our money is we have to have something that creates that do or die feeling that moment that we can get to that fifth level of commitment that whatever it takes or the never, again, kind of commitment, whether it's paying off debt and staying out of debt, whether it.

[00:04:40] Achieving and getting a new job, whether it's going back to school, so you can get a better degree so that you can get a better job or learning a new skill, whatever it is. Do you have that, whatever it takes, level of commitment if you've struggled with your money for years, [00:05:00] If you've thought to yourself I wanna get it done.

[00:05:03] I wanna get a budget. I wanna have more control of my finances. I wanna get outta debt. I wanna know where my money is coming from and where it's going, and I wanna have a plan for it so that whatever I execute on that plan, what I want to occur occurs, you have to have that, whatever it takes level of.

[00:05:24] And what I've noticed is a lot of times people move through this in phases. So for instance, if they have a big crisis, maybe they've got old bad debt or they've lost a job or something like that happens where it's a major event, they get into the, whatever it takes mode. We're gonna fix this no matter what, whatever it takes, but then oftentimes they get through that crisis.

[00:05:49] They get out the other side and now they're at a place where. They're beginning to have things settle back down, they get rid of the old bad debt, or they [00:06:00] get a new job and they're actually even making more than they were before something happens that creates and relieves that stress that they were under.

[00:06:10] And now all of a sudden they begin to move down the level of commitment they move from whatever it takes to. I will do it if, or I will try, or I wish. Or maybe even to no commitment at all, they go back into the behaviors that they had before that got them into the emergency in the first place. And then they begin to build up that stress level again, until eventually they get back to the, whatever it takes level.

[00:06:39] The interesting thing is you can be in the, whatever it takes level of commit. and the, I will do it. If I will do it in less, you can be in these high levels of commitment, even without a crisis, even without an emergency, even without a disaster, [00:07:00] but it takes intentionality. It takes a decision. You have to decide up front.

[00:07:07] This is a never again, moment. This is a do or die moment. I'm going to commit to this, not just today, not just to fix this immediate problem, but I wanna fix the bigger thing I wanna change the way I look at the world. I wanna change the way I look at my money. I wanna have a different relationship with my money forever.

[00:07:30] This is not about making a goal. See, getting out of debt is a goal. It's something that you begin, you complete, you finish it. It's gotta beginning a middle and an end. Instead, the, whatever it takes philosophy, if you want it to stick, it has to have that feeling that last. Beyond it has to have that feeling that last long enough to really make [00:08:00] new habits, to make new mindsets, to make and create new beliefs.

[00:08:05] You have to change not just for the goal, not just to start and get through it, but you have to keep that level of commit. Beyond that you have to have that level of commitment towards your why towards the emotional thing. That's behind the goal. The reason that you're trying to get out of debt or get control of your money, not just getting control of your money, but why are you doing it?

[00:08:31] What does financial independence mean to you? What does freedom mean to you? What does having control of your money mean? And if you have that, whatever it takes, level of commitment to that, why. Then all of a sudden the behavior change becomes real and last. Thanks for listening.

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