Take me where the wi-fi is weak.

I said I was going to do it. So I did it. The hike to Lindeman Lake was about 2.5 miles up a mountain, through rocks, boulders and logs. I'm not talking a gradual ease either, but I said I would do it so I did it. That is a powerful thing. To show up for your promises to yourself, to others. To mean what you say and say what you mean.

I wrote down that I was going to hike this trail. There is a mysterious power in writing. In a book called Bargaining for Advantage by Professor G. Richard Shell we see the power of the written word. As part of hidden camera TV show, producers placed a fake sign on the highway between Pennsylvania and Delaware that read "Delaware closed."

Some of the drivers who were driving to Delaware ignored the sign, but a few others stopped, believed it, and turned around. One concerned driver even asked, "When do you think it will reopen? I live there, and my family is in there!" That is how powerful a printed phrase can be. This is due to something called the "deference to authority" principle, where printed words carry a much higher authoritative message than verbal ones. That is why writing tasks down will dramatically increase the probability that they will get done.

What have you written down lately? What are you promising yourself to do it? Are you sticking to it?

I suppose this principle is also why I believe in others written words with even more truth. Be careful and committed my friends.