How to Make Unbreakable Resolutions
While the research on the efficacy of unbreakable resolutions is still preliminary, what’s been done so far “indicates that some individuals find them to be highly effective,” and PSR has formulated several guidelines on how they are best put into practice:
At the start of the day (or the night before), in some highly distinctive way, make an unbreakable resolution to accomplish at least one task that day that you might not otherwise accomplish.
The most important of an unbreakable resolution’s three characteristics is its distinction from a run-of-the-mill intention — the sense that your soul and self-respect are on the line, and that it must therefore be accomplished at all costs.
You might not think you can simply decide to invest a resolution with existential stakes, but you’d be surprised with how well this works.
Be very thoughtful about the unbreakable resolutions you make. Unless Pückler-Muskau was completely convinced of the necessity of taking some action and of his own commitment to it, “the mysterious formula is not pronounced.” Once you do make a resolution, decide that keeping it is a matter of sacred honor.
Know your limits; start small.
Both Gandhi and Pückler-Muskau believed that vows or grand expedients should only be made that 1) fit your nature, and 2) are within your limits.
Gandhi likewise warned of taking “vows that are beyond one’s capacity [which] would betray thoughtlessness and loss of balance.” It was better instead to “take easy and simple vows to start with and follow them with more difficult ones.”
Recognize that obstacles might arise that necessitate abandoning a resolution; in other words, resolutions can be conditional. But make them rare exceptions.
While you should do everything you can to keep your unbreakable resolution, both Gandhi and Pückler-Muskau understood that exceptions, in very rare circumstances, could be made.
The former thought that “a vow can be made conditional without losing any of its efficacy or virtue,” and that breaking a vow might be justified if, for example, “one is travelling or sick.”
Pückler-Muskau was a bit more stringent with his exceptions and allowed “nothing short of physical impossibility” to stop him.
Impose a penalty on yourself if you inadvertently break a resolution without sufficient justification.
If you do break a vow or grand expedient, there needs to be some sort of punishment or penance done to reinforce the solemnity of unbreakable resolutions and to restore your own sense of credibility.
For Gandhi, this idea was based in his Hindu religion. “If he forgets his vow at any time,” the ethicist wrote, “he should do prayaschitta [penance or atonement] and remind himself of the vow.”
For a Christian, the breaking of an unbreakable resolution might require repentance/confession.
For the non-believer, PSR suggests “mak[ing] up for the violation by doing something effortful or unpleasant. This could involve something as simple as taking a cold shower or not drinking coffee for a day.”
But remember, the goal is to never fail on following through with an unbreakable resolution because every time you do, you increase the likelihood of failing again.
In addition to using the four guidelines above, PSR also recommends not telling other people about your unbreakable resolutions, at least at first. Instead, stay quiet about them, and get to work. There’s power in keeping goals to yourself.
They also recommend writing your unbreakable resolution in a special notebook or placing a moral reminder about it around your house. The idea is to keep it at the front of your mind as much as possible.
As you make and keep unbreakable resolutions, you’ll not only find yourself making progress as a man, but will start feeling as Pückler-Muskau described:
I find something very satisfactory in the thought, that man has the power of framing such props and such weapons out of the most trivial materials, indeed out of nothing, merely by the force of his will, which hereby truly deserves the name of omnipotent.
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