I’ve learned something interesting about myself lately that might be useful to a few of you.
I’m not always trustworthy.
Sometimes I say to myself “I’ll do that later” or “next time I’ll….” and then I don’t do it.
I flat out ignore my own promise to myself.
I’m sure this doesn’t happen to you, but in case it does, I came up with a little trick that works (some of the time).
I trick myself by just doing it right now. Whatever it is that I am about to promise myself I will do, I make myself do it right then.
Let me give you an example, using three Jake’s – Aspirational Jake (who wants to do the right thing) and Lazy Jake (who wants to do the easy thing) Realist Jake (who realizes that Lazy Jake will win out in the end):
Aspirational Jake: I’ll work out tonight after I finish a few other things.
Lazy Jake: Great idea. You are totally going to follow through on that.
Realist Jake: Yeah right. Go downstairs and get your lazy butt on the treadmill.
Brilliant, right?
Ok, maybe not, but I’d bet I’m not the only one this has ever happened to.
If this happens to you, tap into your inner realist. Make yourself get started. Or make it so it’s harder to be lazy later (put your workout clothes on). Just find a way to force yourself into getting it done.
Make it a great day.
Jake
The Daily Attitude Email 
I’m a big fan of tricking myself too, but I have to approach it a little differently. Using your example of working out, I’d have to make a deal with myself, once I felt the urge to skip the workout. I’d say, ok self, if you want to skip this workout, go put on your exercise clothes and stand on the treadmill, to prove to me that you did originally intend to workout. Then I’ll consider skipping it. Of course, once you’re standing on the treadmill with your exercise clothes on, it’s much easier to follow through.
Awesome comment as usual, Justin. You ok with me sharing this comment in tomorrow’s daily attitude email?
Absolutely! Feel free.
I was thinking about this some more, trying to figure out why this kind of trick works for me, and I think your analogy of the Three Jakes was the missing piece. I’m not sure how to avoid sounding like a crazy person when trying to describe several metaphorical parts of my consciousness, but here goes…
I guess you could think of those separate parts of you as roommates. They spend a lot of time together in a crowded space, so they must always make an effort to reconcile their differences.
Turns out that although Lazy Me tends to get the final say in arguments with Aspirational Me, Lazy Me is not a bad person. As such, he feels guilty whenever he lets Aspirational Me down. So when Aspirational Me tells Lazy Me that he can have a guilt free pass for exercising that day, on the condition that Lazy Me proves he was honest about his intentions to work out by putting on the exercise clothes and standing on the treadmill first, Lazy Me is eager to do so. So he does. Once he’s there he either promises Aspirational Me he will do better tomorrow (and not want to let him down twice in a row) or more often than not, he’ll just decide to go ahead and work out since he’s already standing there.
The human brain is weird, huh?