Make a promise to yourself

On my way home I stopped at the library and picked up some videos.
I am still having a love affair with my new 42” TV and blue ray player.
After having spent the last six months watching DVD’s on my 15” lap top, I am captivated by the amazingly large and incredibly sharp picture.

But I knew I had to write and publish a blog. Well, I figured, I won’t watch a dvd until the blog is published. So when I got home I started on dinner, thinking about the blog, and thinking about which video I would watch. But I was also thinking about the business emails I needed to answer, and the video on increasing blog readership I knew I needed to watch.

Well, I thought, I can answer those emails and the blog video tomorrow. But then I remembered I wanted to go for a run tomorrow after work, after which I was to meet a friend who would break his Ramadam fast at eight… And the next night was my Apple User Group, and so it wouldn’t be till Friday when I would get to do the things I needed to do to get closer to making my dream become real. But I knew I shouldn’t wait till Friday, I should do it now.

So I was going back and forth, do I play or do I work. But then something snapped. I made a decision. And I made a promise. I said to myself, “I promise I will not watch a dvd tonight.” A load was immediately lifted from my mind. There was no more going back and forth about what I would do tonight, play or work. Once I said that, once I had made a promise to myself, there was no going back.

I knew it was all I needed to do to bring the matter to a close, but I am still amazed at how powerful the effect of making that promise was. Once I made a commitment to myself to do the right thing, doing the right thing had an additional impetus. Prior to making the promise I was weighing the two choices, do I watch a video, or do I work, and the choices were pretty much in balance. But once I made the promise, it was as if an additional weight had been added to the scale, a weight that made the choice clear; I was going to work.

I urge you to try this strategy. Next time you are caught balancing the choices, especially when you know exactly what the right choice is, try stacking the deck for the right choice, by making a commitment, a promise to yourself.