The fundamental difference is not one of capacity or skill. It’s one of intention. When we want to be involved, we join for the experience and the benefits. We pursue the convenience and the added value. By the same measure, involvement fizzles out when the cost rises. When the trade-off becomes too steep or the sacrifice creeps too high, involvement is quickly traded for observer.
By contrast, commitment gets stuck in behind a vision. It buys into the objective and purpose. It relinquishes convenience in pursuit of something it has already determined to be worth more than the fight, blood, sweat and tears. The yardstick is not one of acceptable tolerance level but rather one of a vision fulfilled or an objective achieved.
We never truly understand this until we move from involvement to commitment.
It really is the same thing, the one just has a higher buy-in, and fortunately, a higher reward.
