There you are at that event, getting ready to do the thing you committed to days, weeks, or months ago. And you ask yourself, “why did I say yes to this?”

This type of thing happens to me more often than I would like to admit. These could be significant events, like speaking at a conference, or small events such as having coffee with someone you barely know. There isn’t anything wrong with the event itself. For me, it is the disconnect between how I feel at the time that I agree to do this activity and when the time comes to deliver on the commitment.

I have a theory that my present self dislikes my future self. The present self isn’t great at protecting how my future self will feel about the activity. Upon reflection, would I have said yes to this commitment if the event was happening soon? Now, this may be my introverted self influencing my decision making, but often I think no, I would not have agreed to this commitment.

This issue reminds me of Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No article. I can’t say I have been great at following Derek’s advice.

For me, there are two forces working against themselves, the force of my true self that says, “you don’t need or want to do that”, and the force what I believe other’s expect my role to be in a given situation, that says, “sure, I know you expect me to do these types of things, so sure I’ll do it.”

Let this be a reminder to my future self to say no to more requests. My future self will thank my past self.