What if there were a way to make your New Year’s wish come true — would you use it?

Cognitive scientists call it making a Ulysses Contract. It’s named after something Ulysses did when he was trying to get home after ten years of war.

He sets off home in his ship and when he’s half way there, he has to sail past some notorious half woman, half bird like creatures called the Sirens. They sing so beautifully that any sailor who hears them can’t tear themselves away — they stop, they listen and they listen and they listen…and eventually they just waste away and die.

Ulysses knows this. But he really wants to hear them sing.

So this is what he does: He stuffs wax into the ears of his crew, so that they can’t hear a thing. Then he has them tie him to the mast — no wax in his ears — and he tells them:

“ If I beg you to free me, bind me yet more tightly.”’

As they sail past, he screams to be released. But because he planned for his future weakness… he survives.

A Ulysses Contract means putting protections in place while you’re thinking clearly and feeling strong — because you know that later, willpower will fail you. That’s why instead of just planning to go for a run, you arrange to meet a friend for a run – knowing that letting them down would feel even worse than dragging yourself out of the house.

I once heard the story of a woman who was active in the American civil rights movement. She was a smoker and wanted to quit — but kept failing. So she made a plan: She wrote out a cheque for $10,000 and gave it to a friend saying: if you ever catch me smoking, donate this money to the Ku Klux Klan. She knew that when her future self felt weak, the idea of the KKK receiving $10,000 — from her, of all people — would be so repulsive that she’d find the strength to resist. It worked.

Instead of trusting yourself to resist temptation, you plan for it in advance. It’s also how I launched the first event we ever ran for The Park — I announced the camp dates, so I couldn’t back out.

So if you’ve got a resolution this year — don’t rely on motivation and will power. Tie yourself to the mast.