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Message to a Quitter
OK, so here’s the scoop…when I was working at Allstate about 5-6 years ago, me and a few co-workers decided to have a ‘Weight-loss’ competition.
I don’t think any of us really knew what to ecpect…we all just wanted to get fitter…by any means necessary.
It was mutually agreed that we’d let this competition run for 3 months. After whcih time, we’d weigh-in and crown the King or Queen. OK, let me be clear before I upset my female readership…it was considered about the rate that men can lose weight in comparison to the rate in which men can…so the weight lose was calculated as a total percentage of your initial weight…this we figured would level the playing field a bit.
Needless to say that as motivation, we all contributed a monetary amount to be given to the winner.
Not to be tooting my own horn but…yes…I did win this competition. I lost like 10lbs…and was awarded an imaginary crown that I wore with respect…and made about $300 I believe in the process.
So….fast forward to June of 2009.
No longer at Allstate…in a new work environment…and I suggested the same weight-loss competition. I realized a few improvements needed to be done to ensure the highest level of accuracy the second time around (at least for me in this competition).
So, we decided to get our Body Mass Indexes Professionally read (which we had done at a local Bally’s). On the day of the weigh-in, there were 12 of us. Each person was responsible for paying for their BMI reading (initial and ending), along with a 1-week Guest pass. The total was $25 to cover the before mentioned.
I will say this now…every person that was at the weigh-in was personally intrgiues and motivated (at the time) because we all agreed that we’d put in $50/person to make the winner a some-what rich person!
So, fast forward to November/December, at the request of most, an extension was made….keeping in mind, we started this is August 2009. Holiday season closely began to approach….and participants slowly began to question if they could keep their mouths shut (referring to ingesting oodles and Noodles, etc. lol) over the holidays.OK I can understand that.
So, now it’s January. Keep in mind, even before January, there were folks to quit..the competition..the company (haha) etc…that decreased the number of participants even up til January.
So, with 7 people left, the agreed upon date to do the final weigh-in was set for May 1. A very fair date I thought…apparently agreed upon because didn’t noone complain.
On May 3, 2010, I sent out the final reminder that the weight-in was May 7. All of a sudden, the ‘I Quit’ emails started flooding in! WTF!!
Are you all serious? Where’s your pride? Where is your honor? Where is your commitment to finishing something to the end that you’ve been working on for 9 months?!!…here is where I begin my rambling, as it took MY TIME, MY EFFORT, MY ENERGY, to get this thing going…organized everything…bugging the participants, Bally’s staffers, everything…and this is how I get handed my ass…OK
I’ll just ramble til I feel better.
Just learned the value of unconditional commitment. If you commit to doing something, don’t just quit after months or working towards your goal. If money is involved, and you feel the need or urge to quit, you don’t think you should still handle your financial responsibility? It’s not my fault to think you were going to lose the bet.
It’s kinda pathetic to know that the character of a person can be compromised and given a dollar value. Be true to your word. Practice ethics. Don’t follow the crowd. If someone decides to quit, are you going to stop bettering yourself and stop working towards a better you and quit too?!Character. Substance. Self-Discipline. Peer-Pressure. FLABBY FOR LIFE. See it through..that’s a committment you willingly joined. So basically what you are saying is that you’d rather quit than fulfil the voluntary obligation to yourself and those that kept at it to win the prize.
The only lesson learned is the following:
1. Commitment aint what it used to be
2. Whenever doing an Office pool, collect the prize money up-front, or enlist a ‘No Quitter Clause’…even that will not ensure the person will not be a sore loser and decide not to pay up.
When people say ‘I do’…what does it really mean? I will til it gets too hard. I will until I don’t want to anymore. I really don’t (for those chronic liars walking around lying about everything in the world)
Be reliable. Don’t be a quitter. Take your ass whippin like a man (or woman)..don’t back out because you feel like there are no consequences…there’s one huge consequence. The lose of respect and trustworthiness. But who really cares.
HIGHLY UNLIKELY A QUITTER.
I just want to be clear. I was never part of “FLABBY”, I did not attend the original weigh in and never paid in.
For whatever reason, I remained on the FLABBY distro. Point bein’- I can’t quit what I didn’t join.
Just sayin’
J/..I know…I don’t even know how you stayed on the distro…but that is easily explanable and understandable…it’s the ‘Others’ that just started chiming in once the (flood) gate opened! after 8 months into it..and a week before the final deadline! You are still OK with me!! *My first legitimate comment*…LOL…I didn’t know how to approve it! lol..j/k
wow.. well. I QUIT. eh.. i dont like saying that.. just thought i’d test it out tho. carry on.
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