A friend of mine recently said, “Next week I really need to clean up my office, but I know I won’t do it.”
I replied, “Why don’t you put the task on your calendar?’’
My friend answered, “That never works. I rarely keep appointments with myself. Especially, when it’s something I really don’t want to do.”
“Does the same thing happen when you make appointments with other people?” I asked.
“Not as much.” my friend responded. “I seem to do better at keeping my appointments with other people.
This seems to be a very common problem with many people. It’s often easier to keep an appointment with another person than it is to keep an appointment with yourself. However, if you want to excel as a leader, the appointment you must never break is “the appointment with yourself.”
A self-appointment is a matter of self-integrity, which is the foundation of your relationship with others. Each time you dishonor a commitment to yourself, you diminish your internal integrity, which will eventually take its toll on your commitment to others.
If you want to be more consistent in keeping appointments with yourself and strengthening your sense of self-empowerment, thus translating your thoughts to actions, review the following tips.
- Allocate the proper amount of time and resources to accomplish your task.
- If the task takes more than one step, make a sequential list of the steps and tackle the task one step at a time.
- If the task is going to take longer than one hour, divide it into two or more sixty-minute time slots and take at least a one-hour break between these time slots.
- Tell at least two people about your task and the time and date you plan on accomplishing it.
- Ask a trusted friend to contact you by any means necessary on the appointed day and time to see if you have started the task.
Practice these five easy steps for thirty days and you’ll be surprised how often you will begin keeping your promises to yourself, which will motivate you to keep your promises to others.
