Episode 17: What is Dedication?

The Meaning of Dedication: What Are You Actually Committed To?

Dedication is more than just showing up, it’s about effort, consistency, and commitment. But what does dedication really mean? Are you as dedicated as you think you are? In this episode of Message to My Kids, the host talked to his children about the topic of dedication.

Understanding True Dedication

It’s easy to say we’re dedicated to something, but dedication comes in different levels. Are you fully invested in your goals, or just going through the motions? Whether it’s a hobby, a career, relationships, or even daily habits, our level of commitment determines our success and fulfillment. Sometimes, we think we’re dedicated to something or someone, but we’re actually only giving 50% effort. This can push people away or you can lose success at something if not fully dedicated.

What Are You Dedicated To?

From childhood to adulthood, we try to commit to different things like sports, school, work, and personal interests. Some commitments are temporary, while others permanently shape who we are. But as life changes, it’s important to ask: Is my dedication aligned with what truly matters to me?

The Effort Behind Commitment

Dedication isn’t always easy. It requires discipline, sacrifices, effort, and schedule changes. Whether it’s saving money, taking care of responsibilities, or improving a skill, dedication demands effort beyond just participation. It’s ok to not be dedicated to everything. Careful what you choose to be dedicated to, choose what matters, and invest your time and effort into those things and people.

Listen to the Full Episode

In this episode of Message for My Kids, the host encourages his kids and listeners striving for personal growth, to reflect on what they’re truly committed to. Remember, it is ok to choose carefully what you will dedicate yourself to, and who you will dedicate yourself to. Tune in to explore the power of dedication and how it shapes our lives. Listen to the episode in the player above!

Or… Read the Transcript Below!

Welcome back to another episode of Message for My Kids. Today guys, I'm gonna talk about dedication.

What does dedication mean? Does dedication mean that you got to be dedicated to everything? Yes and no. I mean when you're growing up guys, you're dedicated to a lot of stuff and sometimes you're dedicated to a lot of things you don't even realize you're dedicated to. But as you get older, you realize that dedication is not just doing. When I was growing up, I thought I was dedicated to something if I just participated. That's some type of form or degree of dedication.

Playing video games, you're dedicated to play a video game, but you don't have to be 100% unless you want to be 100%. It's basically what you choose what you want to be dedicated to. A lot of people understand what dedication really is. If you want to save money in a bank and you want to put in ten thousand dollars in three years, in the bank, it's gonna take a lot of dedication.

So the involvement in that dedication really, really takes part of behavior change. It really takes part of schedule change because the dedication for saving that amount of money is going to need a lot of dedication. But if you’re dedicated on taking care of your shoes and you have eight pairs of shoes just sitting there and one primary shoes, so a total of nine, your dedication probably ain't gonna be where it's at as if you had one pair of shoes for the next 20 years of your life.

So first, when you think of dedication, and I think it's very important if you guys understand what dedication is. Dedication is like doing something for a purpose, for a reason. Then there's different types of degrees of dedication. There's like, yeah, I'm dedicated. Then there's like hardcore dedicated, and then there's just the medium dedicated. Yeah, I'm dedicated to playing a game. Or you know, how dedicated are you to eat pizza on a weekend? I don't know.

So as you get older, you start to realize that your life was dedicated to reasons. And you think to yourself, is it worth being dedicated to certain type of things? It can even go towards people if you're dedicated towards people as individuals. I mean even pets and animals. Are you dedicated to this pet? And why, you start questioning why. What is it that you're doing that you're dedicated of taking care of this pet? And in return, what are you getting in return? Are you getting comfort? Are you getting safety? Are you getting emotional attachment? So does the dedication actually equal out, or are you ignoring the pet and your dedication is very low? So is it fair for the pet to be in your possession? So maybe the dedication should be increased.

So if you start looking at your dedication level into things you want to do, it kind of fluctuates. It kind of helps you out. Because things might not be working for you in your career, you in college, it might not be working for you and a vehicle. How dedicated are you to take care of that vehicle? Are you dedicated enough to check the oil every month or whatever the manual book says? Are you dedicated enough to do things? A lot of people are not even dedicated to do a lot of stuff. They really aren't. They think they are because it takes a little participation. Just because you participate, that's not the case.

When I was growing up, I literally thought dedication was only involvement. When I was in football, my dedication to football started off strong. It was strong and it ended strong. It really did. I would go home, practice. I would practice what I practiced at practice and then I would watch movies. It was like some I was watching I forgot what it was, it was some football movie trying to figure out how to work as a team. So I was dedicated. It took a lot of dedication for all of us as a team. And that's what you have to do. Your schedule changes, your life changes, your do's and don'ts changes.

So it matters on what you want to dedicate yourself to. And when you find a career, when you find a job, when you find college, when you find stuff, it's really how dedicated you want to be. People come up with excuses like, I can't afford a car. I can't afford this. I can't afford that. And it's like, but if you were really dedicated, you could afford it. And I’m going from previous conversations for like years. I'm not just going recent. I'm talking like when I was younger, when I was in my 20s. Because you can kind of remember those conversations more than the conversation what you can remember just a month ago. It's weird. It's like you can remember the past more as you get older than you do two weeks ago, three weeks ago. I don't know why it's like that. Maybe it's us trying to live in the past, think about the past. I don't know.

But the point is, it takes dedication. It takes strategy. It takes change. You can't go and buy everything. You cannot go to work and expect to get a check and then or a deposit nowadays, get a deposit, bank deposit, and then go and spend all your money. So it really takes some type of form degree in dedication. So how dedicated are you? Are you having problems? More than likely, if you're having problems, the dedication value is low. I can almost guarantee, if you step back out of the box, you step out of the circle, and you look and you analyze how hard your dedication is, it's probably the problem.

Now, we're not talking about relationship-wise, because relationship-wise, it takes more than just one person's dedication. It takes dedication from not just you. But I'm talking about items, I’m talking about clothing, speakers, entertainment, resting, time. I mean, resting is not really items, but it's part you only. Like, when can you rest? If you're dedicated to rest once a week, once every two weeks, three times a week, how dedicated are you to implement that schedule into your daily life? It's all about the dedication.

Now, we're talking about relationship-wise, then yes, it's not just your dedication. Because you can always be putting dedication inside a relationship, but the other person is not putting in dedication in at all or even halfway, or they just simply don’t want to, so it’s never going to work. That's another topic I should even bring up and talk about, like when to cut ties. But that's when you guys get older. That's nothing now for you guys to worry about.

I mean I was thinking about you guys and how much dedication. It was funny because it was something that had happened and it had something to do with with your school, and with you. And I thought to myself like wow you guys really must not not care about a certain situation because you have not brought it up to me. I'm the one that brought it up to you, which is 99% of the time and then I started realizing how dedicated are they? Maybe they really don't want to participate into the school events or certain things that I was thinking about and so then I thought to myself like, okay maybe they don't understand that dedication level. Maybe you guys think that just because you guys participate equals a hundred percent dedication.

So that's definitely something you guys need to hopefully understand at a young age and as you get older your dedication will be in every aspect in your life. And what I mean by that is anything and everything you do when you get older takes some type of degree of dedication.

If you're in a career and you really like then job and you don't want to lose it. It's gonna take a lot of dedication. It takes dedication for dedication.

Okay, so I hope this helps you guys. I really do. It's not just participation. And some dedication really takes, there’s some degree of dedication that will take a lot. It'll take your schedule. It'll take your fun time away. It'll take your attitude changing. It'll take communication to change. It'll take your clothing style to change.

It's almost like the army. How dedicated are you to go into the army, the military? You got to shave your head. Some people love their hair. I mean, you look at Cynthia, that girl, baby girl, you love your hair like it's made out of gold and you can brush it or make wishes. But if you go to the military, you got to shave that off.

And if you're that dedicated to join the military, that takes dedication, some type of level, form of dedication. If you want to go to the Dollar General, if you want to go to the store and buy a pack of colored pencils and set them on a table, use them once and throw them away, how much dedication did it take you to take care of those pencils, store those pencils, buy those pencils?

So I hope this makes sense because it does take dedication for dedication to work. Some people don't have dedication. Some people don't have it. Some people don't want it. Some people live their life without dedication, and that's fine. That's okay.

I was never that type. I raised you guys where if you really want something or you really want to do something, it needs to take dedication. But maybe I wasn't that clear to break it down and just really explain what dedication is. Because it seems like you guys like you understand what it means, but you don't fully understand.

So I think this Sunday during family time, I think I’ll bring it up. I have to make note of it. But you guys are doing amazing. You guys are doing great. When you get older and you're having problems and issues with work, when you're having problems and issues with school, even in your life, just think about who's putting dedication? Are you putting dedication?

Is your dedication value up there? It also falls back into accountability. You know, it ties right next to dedication slash accountability. It's right there. It really is.

And let me warn you guys, when you take time and analyze how much dedication you've been putting in, and if you realize that you've been putting in more dedication into something and it's basically, I'm trying to word this to you guys because I don't want you to twist it. I don't want you to take the wrong message. I don't want to deliver the wrong message. That's why I'm trying to word this perfect.

When you have done so much dedication and you realize that the dedication there was basically taken advantage of, or for nothing, or walked on, it's hard to put that dedication back into where it's supposed to be. It really is.

So you have to be careful. It's kind of one of those things where if you really want to know about it, you'll know about it. But you can't really handle the truth.

I'll give an example.

And so I was dedicated to taking care of the ATVs. I got insurance. We got the loans, got the insurance. I was dedicated. And then I take the ATVs, I take them for my oil change, and then I still have to pay for the oil change. So what was the point of buying the insurance for the oil change?

It was like the dedication level flopped. It was like, I don't even care. Why am I gonna even care to keep up to date with the insurance oil changes if I still have to pay?

Oh, but it's not gonna be the total amount of what if I did pay without the insurance. It's like, why wasn't that described in the beginning? My dedication level, if there was truth, if there was honesty, if there was accountability, my dedication level would have been exactly where it needed to be before I did the purchase.

And if I still did the insurance purchase, I would have been okay with it because I am expecting it.

And that, that you can literally form into a relationship almost. You can literally form it into a relationship. If you're in a relationship and your dedication level was so high for so long, and then you find out it's like, well, no. I'm not going to put my 50% of dedication, 100% dedication that I'm supposed to put in.

Because to me, in a relationship, relationship-wise two people put in 100% dedication level. So there would be 200% dedication level in a pot. But if one person’s like, "I'm only putting in 50. That's all I got to do." Okay, well, the expectation level should have probably been lowered. And I only know this if you would of said something in the beginning. But that's a whole different topic. That's all something different. Dedication. Relationship. The reason why I'm bringing it up now is because I'm trying to relate everything into the word dedication.

And it takes a lot, guys. It takes a lot. How dedicated are you?

You want to get a good night's rest? You want to wake up rested? It's gonna take dedication. It's gonna take dedication for you to go to bed. You're gonna have to cut off staying up late. No watching movies at night.

You guys woke up Sunday. You guys woke up Sunday like at 1. We went to bed at 4:35 in the morning watching movies. If we expected to wake up refreshed, and we knew we were gonna get tired because we all talked about it, if we knew we wanted to wake up refreshed, it took dedication for us to say, "Hey, we can't watch movies tonight." Not even one, because one leads to two, two leads to another and a half.

It takes dedication, guys. I love you. I love you. I hope this all makes sense. And just keep in mind, sometimes other people do not understand, and they don't wanna do, and they don't have dedication. That's fine. That's fine.

People don't eat apples. People don't eat bananas. But they eat hot dogs. That's okay. People believe in different gods. People wish upon the stars. It's all about how much dedication do you want to apply into your life, into the things you do? Check the value, the return on value on dedication as well. Is it worth it and why? If it ain't worth it, then there’s some changing that needs to be done.

And if you don't want to put dedication into something then don't, then don't. Trust me when I say you, if don't want to put dedication into something, don't. Don't, you'll be much happier, you'll be much happier I promise.

I love you, I love you so much and you kids are so wonderful. I gotta pick you up Angela after practice. Cynthia, Maria, you guys will be home and Celestino's probably on his way already. And Monster is watching 90s movie and she says she likes it. And I got the dog right here licking himself and then staring at me now. Alright I love you guys, there's another message for my kids.