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How to stop kidding yourself about your commitments.

TODAY, I TURN THIS SHIP AROUND.

The power of doing what you say you’ll do.

tinalear

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Photo by Mali Maeder (courtesy of Adobestock.com)

It’s shocking how little weight I give the commitments I make to myself. I took a cold, hard look at it a while ago and I noticed the following things (this is a small sampling):

  • For months I’ve said I’d do yoga three times a week, and I had never done it. Not even once. (This is hard to admit. I am a yoga teacher.)
  • Every day a reminder told me to drink two liters of water.
    It meant nothing to me.
  • I’d scheduled time at my laptop to keep my writing on track.
    I ignored it without even knowing I’d ignored it.

What is that all about?

Bottom line, I think there was this crazy fantasy going on in my head that when the notification popped up on my screen (“Yoga”) and I clicked on the word “Complete,” in some alternate universe I actually did that thing. And the person I wished I were was made real. I think my online calendar was a virtual reality version of me, the one I hoped everyone thought I was.

Our culture encourages broadcasting better versions of ourselves for mass consumption, so there’s no real incentive for pushing back on that. But this is the first…

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