One of the main tenets of the GTD mindset is that of renegotiating agreements instead of breaking them. This isn't terribly profound since people are generally much happier when you reschedule a lunch date instead of simply not showing up without telling anybody, but for some reason I still make this mistake.

I don't know what it is inside me that gets all "just ignore it and it will figure itself out" when it comes to situations I'm not properly equipped or inclined to deal with, either because I don't have all of the information or it's a situation that involves making an uncomfortable decision. Being more in control of my responsibilities, etc. has helped with this, but it still bites me in the ass more often than it should, and sometimes it costs me. The cost can be in money lost or opportunity missed, but the most difficult to deal with is when it results in broken trust or lost credibility.  In other words, I drop the ball and now the list of people who walk around thinking I'm an unreliable knob gets a little bit longer. It happens a good deal less than it used to, but it still happens and I find it irritating.

Not that I don't expect myself to screw up on regular occasion - I know myself well enough to know that there isn't much I can do to avoid that - but when things are absolutely in my control and I simply fail to act, even if acting is as simple as telling interested parties that I'm not going to react yet, then it's exponentially more unnerving when the consequences show up, pissed. 

If you combine this little bug in my personality with the fact that I tend to overreact emotionally when I poop the bed, then it's like regret soup in my head for like 3 days longer than need be. All this is to say that I'm going to try to on a new little mantra when it comes to commitments:

"Just don't flake on it.  And if you do, ask forgiveness and forgive yourself."

(Now I'm going to go get Hallmark on the blower because man, how inspirational is that?)