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“Self-esteem is the reputation that you have with yourself.”
Naval Ravikant
One cup of tea almost broke my 108-day streak.
At ten I stop caffeine for the day. A late start meant choosing between the cup and the cutoff. I leaned toward the cup.
Before I chose, I checked the streak: 108 days.
108 mornings I said I’d stop at ten and stopped. I weighed the tea against the record and made a caffeine-free cup instead.
It was only tea.
But the cutoff comes around each day. The record is made of choices this small.
I once went to the gym at midnight to protect a 26-day running streak. A five a.m. flight and fourteen hours of travel were coming, so I did the next day’s run the night before.
Some counts guard more than tea.
In the 1940s Sister Ignatia helped run a ward for alcoholics in Akron, Ohio, alongside Dr. Bob, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. She gave each patient leaving a medallion and one instruction: to drink again, first bring the medallion back to her.
AA groups still mark sober time with chips:
- 24 hours
- 30 days
- 1 year
One group counted in poker chips.
A bet is a confidence signal.
At the 2003 World Series of Poker, an accountant named Chris Moneymaker played Sammy Farha, a seasoned pro, one-on-one for the title. Moneymaker missed the cards he was chasing and pushed every chip forward anyway, holding king high, a hand that would have lost the moment the cards flipped over.
Farha held the better hand and read the bluff out loud: “You must have missed your flush draw, huh?” He folded anyway.
Moneymaker took the pot, then the title and $2.5 million.
Confidence makes good outcomes more likely.
Each promise you keep to yourself is evidence your own word is good. That record stays private.
When your habits have long streaks behind them, the confidence carries over to the rest of your life.
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Which promise, kept daily, would build your confidence?
