In this step you will identify one or more commitments that compete with the commitment with which you started.

The way that you generate a competing commitment is by phrasing a commitment that keeps the things you were afraid of in step 3 for happening. So, for example, someone who identified a fear of looking stupid arising in step 3 would have a commitment “to not looking stupid”. They would write this competing commitment as:
I am committed to not looking stupid.

In this sense finding your competing commitments is straightforward, it is a rewording of the fears that you identified in step 3. However sometimes you can spot something more significant. For example when I did this exercise I had three different fears. They were ‘fear of failing’, ‘fear of not being good enough’ and ‘fear of looking foolish’. When I looked at these in terms of competing commitments it seemed to me that there was one overriding issue, namely that I wanted to maintain an image of being competent. So rather than write three separate competing commitments (like I am committed to not failing) I wrote one overarching commitment that seemed to me to encapsulate all the fears. What I wrote was

I am committed to maintaining a competent image

So reflect on the fears that you identified in step 3. Is there one, or maybe two, overarching commitments that is determining all, or some of, the actions you identified in step 2.

Next (Step 5)