Incentives

Do you play mental games with yourself in order to meet your goals?  I do, but sometimes my mental dialogue gets a bit hilarious.

I’ve made a bargain with myself in the Dark & Early hours that I can’t read my blog feeds until I get my first writing stint done.  That means I can’t read Suzanne’s Chickens in the Road, which is my MUST READ every single day.  Or Paperback Writer.  That’s incentive!

I’ve decided that I can’t eat lunch until I’ve completed my workout.  If I’m really really hungry, then I can have a snack, but that’s it.  I know myself too well.  If I make my lunch, then I’ll decide I need to wait awhile before working out…and pretty soon the day will be gone.  My chances of getting anything done at night once the monsters are home are slim to none.

Yesterday, I had a long (about 30 min) argument – I mean discussion – with myself about whether or not I was going to do the Ab Ripper at the end of the cardio workout.  I really didn’t wanna.  Oh, I soooo did not wanna.  I was super hungry.  I didn’t want to use my whole lunch working out.  I wanted some time to veg before getting back to work.  Back and forth.  But I decided I would feel GUILTY [OMG why didn’t someone tell me I had “quilty” not “guilty”?  I don’t even quilt!]  if I didn’t do the full workout routine that I’d committed to doing.

It’s *only* 3 minutes or so of additional activity.  It’s not like 3 mins is going to make me late.  Or I’m going to starve to death.  Even though my fat was really crying and protesting that I *would* starve to death.

So I did it.  But man was it tough.

Do you bargain with yourself – or make deals with your inner demons?