Make Commitments

[14] When you make a commitment to another person, you establish what psychologists call a contingency of reinforcement; youve automatically arranged for a reward if you comply and a punishment if you dont. It puts some pressure on you, and thats often just what you need.

[15] For instance, if you want to exercise more, arrange to do it with a friend. If you dont show up, your friend will get angry, and that may be just the ticket to keeping you punctual. Decades of research have demonstrated the power of this strategy. For example, in 1994 Dana Putnam and other researchers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University showed that patients who made written commitments were far more likely to take prescribed medicine than patients who hadnt. Mary Lou Kau and Joel Fischer of the University of Hawaii reported a case of a woman who got herself to jog regularly by setting up a simple arrangement with her husband: he paid her quarters and took her out on weekends whenever she met her jogging goals.

[16] Theres good news here for all of us. We can meet many of the demands and overcome many of the challenges of life with simple skills--straightforward practices that anyone can master and that dont require willpower--in other words, with skill, not will.

许下诺言

[14]当你向别人许诺时，你就形成了心理学家所说的后效强化这么一种情况。一旦实现承诺，你自然早已准备好得到嘉奖;如果食言，面临的就是惩罚。这将给你带来压力，而通常这也正是你所需要的。

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