When you plan your day, you’re making a promise to yourself… whether you realize it or not.

You’re making a promise to yourself to get what’s most important, done. To show up for yourself, and for others. To go to sleep feeling accomplished, and proud.

Sometimes, the unexpected happens, and you have to adjust your course. But often, the reason we don’t stick to our plans is because something better came along, and in the moment, it seemed like a great choice. We abandon the original plan (made with foresight and probably intention) for the shiny thing in our path right now.

I’ll give you an example. The other day I got a call from a friend who happened to have the afternoon free and wanted to see if I could break away to have a drink and catch up. My original plan was to work on strategy for that hour, but I dropped that priority in favor of happy hour.

This might seem harmless and in fact even positive at first. I mean, spending time with friends is a priority for me! And listening to a friend when they’re going through something personal, also the kind of friend that I want to be.

The bigger issue is that I broke two promises to myself – I wasn’t going to drink during the week, and that plan went right out the window along with what I was going to have done in that hour.

The reward of time with friends (and a $7 Gin & Tonic) beat out having a bunch of strategy completed, and the result was a mild hangover and having to squeeze that work into a limited crevass in my packed work-hours schedule.

Here’s the thing: The REAL reward that I want to chase is the reward of true schedule freedom, or work not bleeding into my personal time. The REAL reward is being a woman who keeps her promises to herself. The REAL reward that I want to ground myself in next time is being proud of myself for being THAT woman. A woman who has so much fun figuring it out, who has her own back, who prioritizes what is most important and gets it done with joy.