This week we’re going to talk about the commitment continuum. What the hell is that? How does it apply to your work and dedication to yourself and the gym? How does it **life**. This episode is set up a little differently than most, we’re going to spend most of it explaining what the commitment continuum is

WHAT IS THE COMMITMENT CONTINUUM

Imagine for a moment that Commitment is a continuum – a single line. At one end of the continuum is Low Commitment and at the other end is High commitment.

Where do you believe you fit on this line?

Are you someone who believes sport is about fun, enjoyment, health, fitness and friendship and are therefore at the lower end of the Commitment Continuum?

Or are you someone who is driven, passionate, determined, focused on winning, relentless in your search for performance, uncompromising in your pursuit of excellence and therefore you see yourself towards the high commitment end of the Commitment Continuum?

Being involved in sport at any level is great. It helps promote physical fitness, health, well-being and provides people of all ages with some wonderful opportunities to learn new skills, make friends and enjoy life however, if you want to be the best, then it’s about commitment and how much of it you’re prepared to give.

There are seven stages on the commitment continuum. Let’s dig into that

1. Resistant. You resist overall goals, culture, training methods while not agreeing with your own or a coaches rules and standards expressing it either verbally or nonverbally.
   • pulling yourself in the opposite direction due to not being bought into leadership, common goals and the path to achieve success.
   • We literally have all been here whether we realize it or not. If you aren’t bought into what you’re doing, how are you going to succeed at your goals? If you are questioning the path you’ve put yourself on, excuses and not pushing yourself end of happening because at the core of it, you don’t believe in what you’re doing.
2. Reluctant. You’re not fully bought into the goals while also being hesitant to do what is asked.
   • You tend to show it through uninspired work ethic and body language.
   • The majority of the time, you have a “wait and see” type of attitude due to either a lack of confidence in yourself.
   • This applies massively to changing up your workout routine, updating goals etc when you’re on your fitness journey. Truly think about this and how it’s impacted you. 
   • I know this will probably work, but I haven’t tried this before so therefore I’m not sure I really have bought in because I haven’t seen the results within myself yet
3. Existent. 
   • You are often present physically, but not when it comes to mind and spirit
   • You give a little more than just your physical presence and the training is of little significance to you
   • Usually you’re not super positive to yourself on the journey
   • You know that you have the ability, you do the work, but you’re not there mentally. This is usually a plateau phase that we did an episode about a couple of weeks back. If you haven’t go back and listen to that episode. We gave a multitude of ways to break out of plateau.
4. Compliant.
   • You do what you’ve asked of yourself or what your coach has asked of you, but you aren’t self motivated to give any extra and often lack initiative and foresight to go above and beyond and truly push yourself
   • Specifically when you’re working with a coach, they have to supply the direction and motivation for you to act
   • This one is rough and we’re probably calling several folks out. Myself included. You’re doing the thing, but not with any real vigor. Maybe you’ve become too reliant on finding motivation and discipline from outside sources. This requires quit a bit of self reflection. And it’s ok, it’s normal. But not somewhere you want to stay
5. Committed.
   • You’re self motivated, and tend to go the extra mile in order to reach your goals.
   • You often will take initiative and do what is necessary to get the job done and understand that the energy and and effort put forth is an investment in yourself
6. Compelled
   • You will find a way to succeed regardless of the obstacles, adversities or distractions you may come across
   • You often do not rest until the job is done while also having high expectations for yourself
   • You tend to hold yourself to a higher standard which lifts those around you to a high level
7. Obsessed
   • You will get so consumed with achieving a specific goal that you may lose sense of perspective
   • Disregard need for balance in your life as well as recovery phase of training
   • Focus tends to be on themselves and their additional goals rather than greater good

Why are we sharing all of this with you? Coffee & Cream recently had this conversation surrounding Nebraska football and it made me think about just how much this applies to your own journey with fitness and nutrition. 

Everything you do in your life exists on a continuum. Not only does this apply to the gym, but it applies to your job, your relationships, everything. It’s super portable. I guess we brought this up as an opportunity for some inner reflection. There’s a great website out there out there with an article called 7 steps to move someone up the commitment continuum . it’s on jansen sports leadership dot com. We’re linking it in the show notes.

Step one to getting yourself to the next level on the continuum is awareness. WEIRD RIGHT?

How aware are you of where you are on the continuum. did anything we have talked about so far to day make you feel called out?

• One of the biggest benefits of the Commitment Continuum is to help people become much more conscious of their current commitment level in comparison to what is expected by the coach or from themselves

Commitment on this journey is required. How much are you willing to accept and change and how much work are you willing to put in to get yourself to your goals?