To Commit or Not To

Anyone can make commitments. But few meet the commitments consistently. I had my appendix removed on Monday 03Dec and said I'd be back to work Friday. Thursday night I was tossing and turning from the pain. 10pm. 11pm. 1am. The clock kept ticking and I hadn't gotten any shut eye before my 4:30am alarm would go off. On three different occasions, I grabbed my phone to notify my manager that I'd be late. Finally I decided to do it and when I opened my email to send him a note, I noticed one about an issue we were working on. Without hesitation, I put my phone down and had intentions to be there at my normal scheduled time which was 530. 

Planning to stay off my feet for the day, I spent the first 5hrs of my shift pacing across the manufacturing floor ensuring the teams were all aligned to the goals that needed to be met. Every so often someone would stop me and ask if I was okay or If I needed to sit down and I kept going.

I was also asked multiple times why I went into work today and I said: I needed to be here. (something about being a couch potatoe watching NetFlix not being my thing either)

I had committed to be there and with the issues that we were facing I felt obligated to be there.

Commitment is a big word. It takes a lot of positive impacts to earn respect and to be deemed reliable. And it takes only one to destroy that.