At the start of each year, I seek guidance from the Spirit on purposefully living into it: How am I being instructed to approach the new year? Where do I need more awareness and insight for my life? What do I need to be reminded of? What am I being invited to do differently? With prayer and meditation, I now know that 2024 is the year I must align all things with my sense of purpose and finish what I start, no matter how long it’s been or how long it takes. That boils down to a concept that is a huge area of growth for me – COMMITMENT.
About a month ago, I had the amazing opportunity to go on a retreat in Northern Ireland. My retreat group of over 20 people was touring a beautiful pastoral property filled with green grass, native Irish trees with their fairy stories, naturally formed stones used to build walls, a couple of narrow bridges built over streams of water, and a view of one of the Game of Thrones mountains in the distance. Finishing up the tour, I and several others decided to take the path back that we traveled, including walking several extra feet to get around the streams of water. However, about five or six other group members decided to take another path: they crossed the small-ish, flowing stream by jumping on the rocks in the riverbed. I watched one of my new friends, Tarsha, hop on the first few rocks and then pause. The next rock was further away than she expected at first glance. Others were behind her on rocks of their own, and the bustling water all around her escalated her fears of not making the next jump and falling in. Suddenly, a masculine voice bellowed, “You can make it! Just commit!” Grant it, it was the voice of another new friend, Mason, encouraging Tarsha to keep going despite her fear. However, at that moment, I heard the thunderous voices of Zeus, Jupiter, Ra, and YHWH combined; the only thing missing was lightning or, in dramatic biblical fashion, the heavens torn open and a dove descending. Mason may have been encouraging Tarsha, but Spirit was talking to me. I sensed it in my gut. I felt a surge of energy rush through my veins, like the rushing water surrounding my colleagues. I heard the message loud and clear, and I understand the Spirit’s guidance to me for 2024: I can make it if I just commit. I can finish what I start, accomplish my goals, fulfill my purpose, and receive all the goodness of life I have reached for. I can get my finances in order. I can improve my health. I can achieve a work-life balance. I can help others without depleting myself. I can go back to school. I can write my next book, and it can be a bestseller. I can reach my destination – a stage with a large audience listening to my series of Sabrina Nichole “TED-like-talks” for becoming one’s highest and best spiritual Self for the good of others. But, I MUST commit to the journey, process, and daily strategic actions that make a difference in the outcomes.
Commitment is this weird gumbo of mindsets and habits that emanate from five key ingredients – discipline, consistency, accountability, focus, and faith (not necessarily in the religious sense, but more as optimism that things will work out). I struggle with at least three of those five ingredients. I have a hard time keeping a routine because I give more power to how I feel daily, even though routines help me stay organized and on top of things. I have great ideas that I initially try to make happen with excitement, but they don’t always come to fruition once the excitement has worn off. I don’t like to tell myself “No,” and I internally respond to the idea of delayed gratification with profanity. I’m a starter, but seldom am I a closer. And, while I can sometimes be dreadfully insightful and honest about myself and my choices, I have come to understand that honesty (i.e., confessing my sins) is not the same as accountability. True accountability is honesty blended with new mindsets that yield changed behavior. I have to face the music that many disappointments and alleged delays in my life have resulted, at least in part, from my commitment issues. I know it. God knows it. Spirit has been reminding me of it. And because I know, I am now being guided to do better. It’s time for me to get over my commitment issues. Therefore, I’m walking into this new year with clarity, focus, and determination to be disciplined, consistent, accountable, and optimistic.
See you on the other side of the stream.