I’m working on my work commitments, which is a fancy-dancy way of saying goals. It is a bit more involved than a goal and while on the surface it appears to just be semantics, it does imply a greater ownership that just a goal.

The structure of a commitment is:

Commitment/Execution Plan/Accountabilities

So a commitment might be:

Go to war in Iraq

Execution Plan:

Create a culture of fear.
Link unrelated events that provide an impetus to action
Have a respected former member of the milatary produce cooked evidence.
Have everyone say yellowcake and mushroom cloud. A lot.
Hide from the American people the cost of the war

Accountabilities

Achieve the following US casualties:

2003- 486
2004- 848
2005- 846
2006 YTD- 198

Achieve the deaths of 34,000 to 40,000 Iraqi civilians by April 2006

Prevent the photography of coffins

Never attend a single funeral of a dead serviceman

Demonize the mother of a dead soldier

Use the phrase “evil doers and “they hate us because of our freedom” and “you’re doing a heckuva job (enter name of lunkhead here)”

You got the idea. . .(this was more fun that doing the work one.)

I’ve been looking at the commitments of our US counterparts to get ideas (steal) and one of them made me laugh and scared me.

Maintain work/life balance./

Maintain energy by participating in extracurricular activities, Maintain energy by adopting healthier habits, Foster spiritual life, and maintain proper perspective of what’s important./

Go at least one night a week without checking work email, Work out at least 4x a week; run at least 2x a week, Eat vegetables 2+x a week, Attend church every week, and read Bible at least 5x a week.

I hope that his manager really didn’t approve this.

Reading the bible 5 times a week while admirable is not an appropriate work accountability. And how the hell is a manager suppossed to measure that?

It did make me laugh however.

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