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Ulysses Pact

Posted on:March 14, 2022 at 12:13 PM

I think a lot about the Ulysses pact. The idea that in this moment you have strong intentions about the future, but you know your future self is weak, so you set your future self up for success now by making the right thing the easy thing.

You can target the thing you’re supposed to be doing (Ulysses sailing past the rocks), for example, set aside time, space, energy for a specific task. In simplest terms, set an alarm that will remind you to do something or book it on the calendar.

Or you can target the siren song of distraction. Sell your video games, get YouTube blocking software, etc.

A Deeper Insight

The above tactics are great, and they work, but I’ve found I’m mistakenly taking my situation for a Ulysses Pact situation when, in reality, the siren song is already here, and I must choose in this moment to be strong and resist or not.

In other words, you don’t get to wait, you are living in this moment, are you distracted? If you can do the right thing NOW then you can do the right thing later. Now is what matters more, don’t wait.