Psychologists talk about “Decision Fatigue.” It seems that even, or especially, small everyday decisions consume a lot of mental energy.
Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash
What can we do about it?
Total and irrevocable commitment. The promise. The author Rolf Dobelli in his book “The Art of the Good Life,” calls it The Pledge.
“I will do X every day for the rest of my life.”
Oh no, are you telling me that I have to make a promise and stick to it all my life?
Yeah, I know it’s scary. But don’t worry. There are ways to mitigate this anxiety by doing it in stages. 😉
But let’s face it, there are different forms of commitment that are more or less easy.
When Mark Zuckerberg decides to wear only grey shirts (it seems that this is not always true), it’s easier than making a promise to never work on weekends when you have important responsibilities. This is what the famous Harvard professor Clayton Christensen did.
Or for example, Seth Godin commits to publishing a text every day on his blog. And he has been doing it for over 15 years.
And then come the commitments that I classify in the middle. Mine fall into this category 😀.
- 7 minutes of exercise every day
- Stop drinking coffee
- Take a cold shower….
And I have come to realize that “always is easier than sometimes.” Over the last 7 years, the times I missed my 7 minutes are related to what I call “internal negotiations,” me with me😀. These are the ones that consume mental energy.
Let’s see what happens when I broke my “Streak” of the 7 minutes.
I go for a run 2 or 3 times a week, so I told myself:
“ You’re running today. You will do the 7 minutes as a warm-up before running instead of inside your regular morning routine”.
But here is the problem, I didn’t get to run that day and missed my promise.
I like to create options for myself, but I recognize that cutting yourself off is a good method on some subjects.
So how do you try without scaring yourself?
- Start with small promises, easy to keep.
- Give yourself a time horizon. 30/60/90 days.
- Are you satisfied with the results?
- If so, why not start over a more extended period.
What are your promises?
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