Wishes, Promises, Inevitabilities

If you pay careful attention to your personal systems, you’ll notice that your intentions start as wishes, until you make promises, and then until you start keeping them, and then, you look at your personal systems a little differently.

So first, wishes. “In the next year, I’ll launch a product.”

When written like it’s a prediction, it’s really just a wish. That’s because it’s alone. It’s not anchored among other wishes. It’s not placed inside a list of other… promises.

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A promise, on the other hand, is hard to make alone too. That’s because you can’t make a promise unless you have no other outstanding promises.

So you make a small promise first, and then you keep it. You make another promise, and then you keep it, and then you made all the promises needed to launch a product, so now you can make that bigger promise, to yourself, or better, to someone else.

Keep making promises, and then the probability of fulfilling your promises starts getting higher and higher. Soon, you’ll have a system, and your goals will start to become inevitable.

Making your promises inevitable requires looking at your whole personal system.

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Setting weekly goals (promises, but even wishes) can make things a little more inevitable.

Setting up triggers that automatically remind you of performing a small habit.

Avoiding outside variability, that’s also a good strategy for a personal system, but so is your ability to have your personal system gain from outside variability.

Ensuring your ability to continue making promises, like looking after your health and avoiding crippling risk factors.

Transposing yourself to a future state, the practice of visualizing a better future, and walking your promises backward to the present, that also belongs in a personal system, and make things a little more inevitable.

Making an inventory of the expectations you have on yourself, and the expectations you feel coming from others, and having a practice of continual clarification and negotiation.

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Pretty soon, your wishes will become inevitable. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to turn your personal system into profits, so you can help others make progress, and profit from that too.