At a point in our lives we want to become recognized for something, and honoured for a particular accomplishment or achievement, we want to get that rousing applause from the audience for a job well done, or particularly be given a standing ovation from those who are ahead of us like our Bosses, Director or Top executives for a wonderful achievement; but we have often fail to apply our thoughts on what’s most needed in actualizing success at what we do.

 Commitment and Dedication is a vital tool for stirring ourselves towards the path of success, and I can tell you when these two are put into play, they produce a beautiful tune of success worth dancing to; perhaps, you might ask yourself doesn’t commitment and dedication mean the same thing, yes! They mean the same thing, but doesn’t really apply to the same direction.
Commitment is a decisive moral choice that involves a person in a definite course of action; it’s also a state of being obligated or bound (as by intellectual conviction or emotional ties): while Dedication is self-sacrificing devotion to or as if to an ideal or a cause. (Merriam Webster).
As earlier mentioned these two means the same thing but different in their applications, Commitment has to do with giving oneself to a cause, while Dedication means once approach to the cause; commitment deals with the self, while dedication deals with the contributions and materials put into the actualization of the cause. I will give you a general example; Commitment: I am committing myself to the task, Dedication: I am dedicating (Sacrificing) my time for the task.
Now that the both terms have been clarified, it is important to understand their role in the actualization of success, Vince Lombardi gave a wonderful quote on commitment, and in his words he pointed out that “the quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour” and Since excellence is a pointer to success, then we must be willing and ready to give ourselves to excellence and excellence is by no other way gotten from dedication, we must learn to dedicate our time, our resources, our valuables to what we feel its most important in our career path or endeavour in our life’s journey.
 Success does not just fall on a person suddenly, because nature decided to play so nicely to them, but rather it is their tireless commitment and dedication to what they most believed in that paved way for their success. I remember a particular quote on dedication by Nathan W. Morris and it goes thus “The speed of your success is limited only by your dedication and what you’re willing to sacrifice”. We must be willing to sacrifice the best of our best, our talents, our resources, our time, and most importantly our creativity, if truly we want to attain such level of success.
 Therefore in other to stir you into the right path of success, I have decided to provide the following questions to which you can appraise yourself based on your commitment and dedication.
Most Importantly
  • What am I planning on achieving?
  • Do I have a specific timeline and time range for its accomplishment?
  • Is it what I surely believe in? If yes, then you may proceed with the following thoughts.

 

On Commitment
  • What’s my response to what I plan on achieving?
  • Do I have a burning passion and zeal for it? If yes, you may proceed with the following thoughts.

 

On Dedication
  • Do I have a long or short-term plan for achieving it?
  • Do I have enough resources I am committing into it?
  •  Have I fully-utilized these resources?
  • Do I often mismanage this resource? If no, then you are good to go.

 

 
 I want you to keep this in mind that the tune of success will definitely start playing for you, when commitment and dedication is put into play. 
 
 
Thanks for Reading!

Akin-Femi Ade

Image Credit: Entrepreneur.com