How You Treat Self-imposed Deadlines Defines Your Goal Pursuit Mindset
Compromising on self-imposed deadlines is a recipe for failure. On the other hand, consistently meeting self-imposed deadlines (come hell or high water) is a recipe for success. It’s really that simple.
If you want to achieve a difficult goal, this is the mindset you must adopt for yourself. You must make it extremely difficult to quit on yourself. It must be just as hard to quit on yourself as it is to quit when someone important to you is counting on you.
It’s a fact that if you can’t trust yourself to do what you say you’re going to do, you can’t accomplish any meaningfully difficult goal. The first time you miss a self-imposed deadline, it’s hard. You have a sense of guilt and feel bad that you didn’t keep your word to yourself. The second time you do this, it gets easier. The third time, you don’t even think about it. Then, from that point forward self-imposed deadlines mean nothing.
As a result, one of the most important things you can do for yourself in pursuit of a difficult goal is to prevent the first time, and if necessary, do whatever it takes to prevent the next time if you slip up.