When one-third of commitments are failing, stop accepting…
When more than one-third of your active commitments are late, incomplete, or lower quality than promised, stop accepting new commitments until the ratio improves to preserve remaining trust accounts.
When This Fires
- You notice that multiple promises are late, half-done, or below your standard
- Someone asks you to take on new work and you know existing commitments are struggling
- During a weekly review when you count how many commitments are in good standing
- When you feel chronic guilt about the gap between what you promised and what you've delivered
Common Failure Mode
Accepting new commitments because saying yes feels easier than explaining why you can't: "Sure, I can take that on." Each new acceptance makes the existing ratio worse because it adds to the denominator (total commitments) without improving the numerator (healthy commitments). The failed commitments stay failed, and now you have a new one competing for the same scarce capacity.
The Protocol
Weekly: (1) List all active commitments. (2) Rate each: on-track, at-risk, or failing (late/incomplete/below-promised-quality). (3) If more than one-third are at-risk or failing → freeze new commitments. Say "I have existing commitments I need to complete first" to any new requests. (4) Focus exclusively on bringing failing commitments to completion or renegotiating them honestly. (5) Resume accepting new commitments only when the failing ratio drops below one-third. The short-term cost of saying no is far less than the long-term cost of systematic trust erosion.