If/Then

If you don't practice piano, then you can't watch TV! If you don't stop hitting your brother, then you'll be losing your iTouch! If we don't leave right now, then you'll miss the bus, and I don't know how you'll get to school! I find myself constantly playing the if/then game. I'll admit, it doesn't always work for child discipline. But it does help set some boundaries.
 
When you think about it, life is really a series of if/thens. Every step we take potentially affects our next. Every choice impacts the outcome. And, if we would like to control our outcomes--our "thens"--it falls upon us to control our "ifs" as well.
 
Last night, as I fell asleep writing, and woke up hours later, still needing to write, it occurred to me that, in order to get past the "if I sit on the couch to write, I will likely fall asleep," I should set up some if/then boundaries for myself, in the same way I set them up for the kids. I considered "if you haven't written your post, then you can't have dinner," but that seemed a bit too harsh, and a bit unfair, since I am the one making the dinner for everybody else. Then there was "If you haven't written yet, then the couch is off-limits," which is obvious, but clearly didn't work, since I am writing from the couch as we speak. And, "If you don't write a post, then you will have missed a day" makes tremendous sense, but doesn't always manage to win out over sleep.
 
So--what's a reasonably capable person/parent to do in order to enforce an if/then? As with my kids, the potential loss of dessert is compelling, and yet....
 
For me, the dessert "if" would probably work pretty well, but I would like to think that when it comes down to it, for us grownups, the real ifs and thens, not the fabricated ones, are what keep us going. Knowing what we want to accomplish and what it takes to get there. And that if we don't do what it takes, then we won't accomplish those things.
 
Life is made up of if/thens. And if we keep our eyes on the thens, then the ifs will just be a small and manageable--and worthwhile--step along the way.