While many folks make beautiful, loving connotations when they hear the word commitment, many others treat it like it only has four letters. So many people act like it is a dirty word that sometimes it seems like it should be. How did the word commitment get such a bad reputation? Well, let us take a look at the ways we use it in everyday language.

1) Commitment = the act of locking someone up in prison. Well, sure. No one wants to have their long-term relationship compared to a prison sentence. If love and marriage are compared to jail time, it is easy to see how some people might develop an aversion to the idea altogether!

2) Commitment = being put into a mental institution. Again, there are some not-so-nice parallels that can be drawn between what goes on in an asylum and what goes on in a whole lot of long-term relationships. Crazy is crazy, after all. Still, a trip to the psych ward is not necessarily what we mean when we talk about being madly in love.

3) Commitment = sending a legislative bill to be reviewed by a committee. O.K., now that just sounds incredibly boring. While we do not need our relationships to be full of non-stop action, we do not particular fantasize about boring ones, either.

We also talk about committing a crime, committing acts of violence, and committing a blunder. No wonder so many people have all these negative ideas about commitment. It has been ingrained in us for years!

Since we are taking a closer look at the word, let us review some of the kinder, gentler meanings.

1) Commitment = a promise of something to be done in the future. Now, that is a much brighter version of the same word is it not? Promise is such a happy, hopeful word; and it seems so much more fitting when describing love.

2) Commitment = dedication or loyalty to a cause. Dedication is certainly a positive trait, and one that is so helpful in a relationship. Love and dedication go hand in hand in a healthy romantic relationship.

3) Commitment = the trait known as sincerity. The best way to find true love is to be you. A commitment to sincerely being you means it is easier to make a commitment to someone else down the road.

Words are a lot like relationships. The way we look at them determines what we see. If we are looking through a negative lens, then we get an up close and personal view of the negative aspects. If we find a more positive point of view, then we are more likely to see the good. This is true of commitment, just as it is of pretty much everything else.