I was kindly asked the other day, are you committed to this or are you just involved? Yikes, I had to pause and consider what they were actually asking me – what was the difference between commitment and involvement? And importantly what did I want to be?
Like the rabbit, commitment is you are all in, your efforts, your energy, your attention, and focus is all present and in full use. You want to be part of, or responsible for, what happens next.
Whereas like the fox, involvement is you’re interested but you will duck in and out with varying levels of effort and focus, likely have an opinion here and there but the outcome is not your responsibility – you’ll see what happens (from the sidelines).
Was I being the rabbit or was I being the fox? Going back to my values and what was important to me I realised that I had a few things mixed up. Some really important things I was dancing around the edges – fear of failure, disappointment, discomfort, too much caring, overwhelm, any of these reasons meant I was merely involved and playing small. Whereas, things I didn’t really care about I was all in, spending vast amounts of energy, time, attention to deliver outcomes of no real value to me.
In the busyness of our days, weeks, months and years (can you believe it is the end of April already?) we can easily slip into ways of being that are not quite aligned with who we are and who we want to be. Depending on what’s needed, sometimes we will be the rabbit and sometimes we will be the fox. I’m now trying to make this a conscious decision much more aligned to who I want to be.
Love, Jo x