Launched in the preparation of a workshop on "The Sense of commitment", I am faced with the very definition of commitment.
On a daily basis the concept of commitment appears on social networks. Presented as a panacea for the fulfilled employee and the successful enterprise, the commitment is the new injunction to be answered.
The commitment is not "that" professional. It is even more associated with the private sphere: marriage being the "for better and worse" commitment between the spouses for a lifetime.
Very connoted, when we talk about political engagement, it is then assimilated to activism. It is also found in the associative world with "voluntary commitment".
What is the common denominator between voluntary commitment, political commitment and professional commitment?
The workshop that I animate brings together some twenty people who live the associative and sometimes political commitment on a daily basis. The majority of participants experience a level of commitment greater than 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. In the professional context, the average is slightly lower: only 2 people feel a level of commitment less than 5.
Would the commitment be contagious? Would a person engaged in the associative or political sphere tend to be more professionally engaged?
We will then explore the commitment in "images". Each person chooses a photo and only one that it associates with the commitment. By putting the choices next to each other, we visualize the diversity and richness of what collectively we put behind this notion.
The words and comments that led to the choice of these photos fuse and reflect the multiplicity and coMplexité of commitment, as emotional as intellectual...
Between behaviours, feelings, expectations, this cloud of words reminds us that the commitment does not come only "from the head", it comes from the "heart" and "guts", it comes to us in our values to put us in motion and act.
What are we looking for when we commit?
Whether it is an associative, political or professional commitment, we wish through him
- be recognized, valued, useful
- Defending a cause, supporting actions that make sense to us
- Share common values
- Be part of a group, a community
- Grow
- Share your skills, exchange ideas
- Spend time and energy
These are noble ambitions that lead to commitment. But...
We said "engaged"... not "rabid"!
Be careful not to move from commitment to over-commitment. Wanting to "get involved" in everything we do (personal, professional, associative, political...) is
- Illusory (our resources, our time and our energy are limited and follow cycles of variation of intensity promoting recovery)
- Counterproductive (risk of dispersion)
- Dangerous (exhaustion or burnout achieve physical and psychological integrity)
To give a lot of oneself, you might end up losing yourself.
So let us be vigilant to the "our level" of commitment in our different investments
- In order to ensure a personal balance and well-being in time
- So that the cause we support and ourselves go in the "right" direction.