Are you a pig or a chicken?

I had a con­ver­sa­tion with my employer the other day and he told me an anec­dote about a chicken and a pig. He said some­thing to the effect of when it comes to break­fast “The chicken was involved but the pig was com­mit­ted”. I have to admit it took me a minute to get it. He had to explain it to me. The chicken makes a con­tri­bu­tion to break­fast with eggs but a pig gives his life because he’s bacon (every­body laughs). So it made me ask myself, “What am I really com­mit­ted to?”

I reflected on this in the case of my writ­ing. I have no shame in say­ing I am not com­mit­ted to writ­ing. I am involved in it. It isn’t my life. Some peo­ple may say because of that state­ment that I will never suc­ceed. I dis­agree. I am com­mit­ted to other things in my life like being a par­ent first. If I am going to suc­ceed at any­thing I want it to be that. It is extremely dif­fi­cult to be com­mit­ted to sev­eral things at once.

Commitment is a seri­ous word. That’s why when some­one can’t or fails to fol­low through on some­thing they may say they made too many com­mit­ments. A man or woman may admit to not being ready to get mar­ried because of the com­mit­ment. It means they are capa­ble of it, but they under­stand the level of ded­i­ca­tion involved. An exam­ple that imme­di­ately comes to my mind is Jon and Kate (plus 8). Initially they were com­mit­ted to their fam­ily. But over time they became com­mit­ted to their career as TV per­son­al­i­ties and were only involved in their fam­i­lies lives. The result is the fam­ily is falling apart.

People may spend their whole life mas­ter­ing a career or learn­ing how to be good at some­thing. Being so com­mit­ted to it that they live and breathe this thing but at what price? When you look back on your life and your accom­plish­ments, what did you have to sac­ri­fice to get it? When it comes to what’s truly impor­tant what are you? A pig or a chicken?

Thanks for read­ing,