Let me tell you something.
I belong to an investment group with some acquaintances. This came up as a friendly thought by one of us and I am glad that it is revolving into something. When we started, all of us were quite serious about the idea. We agreed to meet once in two months and to make some monthly deposits to a joint bank account. The first four months we superb! None of us defaulted on deposits and we all attended meetings. You could say we were on fire for the thing.
Six months down the road, things started changing, people gave excuses for not coming to meetings. We had one of two missing every time we met. The one who we had designated secretary would not write minutes. Instead, we would try to recall action points of the last meeting and go on. It became a little vague but we pushed on until the end of 2018. In all this time, one particular member was the most unserious (that is if there is something like that). She missed meetings or she reported late at the venue. Her excuses varied from "... I have a catch up with other friends... it is so and so's baby shower, I had booked pedicure at the saloon...etc.
At the beginning of 2019, one of the group members suggested that we all re-commit. To build confidence, she designed a commitment form and put down indicators. It was all sorts of hard things like a heavy cash fine for turning up late for meetings, writing an apology, submitting an early notification for missing a monthly, deposit, etc... She even suggested expulsion from the group for some 'sins'.
Then we converged for a meeting in January. The lady who was the habitual latecomer was the first to arrive. She announced to everyone. ".... I want to let you know that for 2019 I have decided to be different... I will be on time... I will keep to my appointments and I will influence my surroundings.." She went on and on... We all laughed at her new style of stunts. She really sounded funny. Knowing her past behavior, we thought that she was making it up just because she had arrived at the venue on time and before all of us for the first time. The lady who hitherto missed meetings volunteered to be the new group secretary. We agreed, after all, we no longer had anyone to write up our discussions. If for nothing, we had another person to blame for lucking minutes.
After our meeting on a Saturday evening, she sent the minutes on our emails and on the WhatsApp group. We thanked her. She followed up with Direct Messages (read DM) on action points for each one. She was on time for the next meeting and minutes came after a day. She did the same at the next (extraordinary meeting to expel one of the now 'unserious' members). She is still swift and on time. It is now towards August. Her monthly deposits are up to date. Even when she was transferred to an upcountry duty station, she is always on time for meetings. It is almost obvious that you will find her sipping her favorite orange juice if you are late by one minute.
With the resolve by one group member, things have changed completely. We have all been compelled to change by her influence.
My request is that you pray for us to keep the momentum. We have redefined our vision and goal. I always look forward to the on-time short and meaningful meetings.
Think about making a personal resolve too.
See you sometime soon!
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