Let me tell you the story about Ulysses and the sirens. Ulysses wanted to hear the sirens sing. The only problem was that the sirens' song makes anyone who hears it head for the water to join the sirens to which they drown them. Ulysses was a smart guy so he designed a pact: He made his crewmates put wax in their ears so they wouldn’t hear the song and had them tie him to the mast of his ship. When Ulysses heard the sirens sing he went crazy and wanted to join them but his crewmates kept their promise so he didn’t die.
Why am I telling you this story?
Well, I myself have made a Ulysses pact considering this website. I wanted to make a website for a long time, but I was scared of web developement as it can be quite miserable (in web developement it’s often the case that there’s a problem that can have multiple causes; it’s just really hard to troubleshoot). Let’s say that not starting a website is me jumping in the water and getting drowned by the sirens. I needed a rope to tie myself to the plan. I found this rope in buying a domain name. The idea of wasting €20 was enough for me to start and get the most out of it.
The Bigger Picture
A Ullyses pact can be really useful for breaking bad habits and creating good ones. It can come in many forms. For example: when you really need to study but you’re distracted because of social media apps on your phone, it might be a good idea to give your phone to a family member and ask them to not give it back before you’ve finished studying. Another example: You want to eat healthier, but you can’t stop snacking. The solution is quite easy: you make a shopping list (don’t include unhealthy snacks, of course), and you go to the grocery store after dinner so you are not hungry. If you haven’t brought any snacks in the house, you can’t snack anymore.
The framework is simple and has proven to be helpful for a lot of people. I included some links to another website and 2 Youtube videos, they do a better job at explaining this concept than I do.