Don't buy the Oreos

This isn't personal, Nabisco.

Short message today, and this is a grade-A pasteurized original.

When thinking about your willpower, power of choice, and motivation to set good habits, consider the ways we unwittingly make things harder for ourselves than they could be.

Case in point: If don’t want to eat the Oreos, don’t buy the Oreos.

Please indulge simplicity of my argument and take it at face value. For me, this is a reminder that a choice upstream can set the path for many otherwise difficult choices downstream.

While shopping, you made a single calculated choice to not buy the Oreos. Now, while bored, hungry between meals, up in the night, or watching TV, you don’t even have the choice to binge on the sugary treat.

What is an “upstream choice” you can make today to improve your downstream odds of success?

—Phil