Changing My Script - Part 2

In my last post I described the script changes required of me when I decided to join a new gym. That decision should have been made a while back. The conditions prompting the decision have been present for quite a while.

Why did I wait so long?

Perhaps I had some form of commitment to the old gym ...

Organizational behaviorists talk about different kinds of commitment to an organization. The first is normative commitment. This refers to a deeply internalized set of values. People who have normative commitment stay because they feel that they “ought to.”


The second kind of commitment is affective commitment. This is staying because you believe in the organization’s mission and values. You feel you have an opportunity to contribute to something bigger than your self. You are staying because you “want to.”

The third kind of commitment is called continuance commitment. This is staying because “I can’t afford to leave.” It may take the form of “I don’t have another place to go,” or “I have too much invested here,” or “I wouldn’t get the same level of compensation (pay, recognition, title) someplace else.”

Or, it may be because you would have to give up your comfort to change.

Hopefully you realize that affective commitment is the “higher level” of commitment.

But, I wonder how many of us are staying put because of continuance commitment?

Perhaps it’s time to allow yourself the discomfort of changing your script and finding the place where you can commit because you want to!