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  • At the turn of the millennium, ITV,

  • one of the major British TV channels,

  • decided to call the year 2000 their Year of Promise.

  • They held a massive telethon, the Day of Promise,

  • not to raise money for charity,

  • but to get people to call in and promise... something.

  • What we want you to do is: we want you to make a promise.

  • -- And by doing that, you'll make a mark in history. -- Absolutely.

  • The promises would be held forever, they said,

  • in registers held up and down the country --

  • and if you paid ITV some money,

  • your promise would also be permanently inscribed at a historic site somewhere in the UK.

  • Historic like the East India Dock basin, here.

  • A few years later, and there's almost no sign that this ever happened.

  • But to tell the truth,

  • I could have said that in 2002 or 2003.

  • The public didn't care about the Year of Promise,

  • and ITV abandoned the whole scheme as soon as they could.

  • At least, as soon as they could without losing face.

  • The Internet Archive has most of their web site,

  • and the National Library of Scotland seems to have the only available copy

  • of a CD with all the promises on -- but that's it.

  • Some of the benches and monuments that are inscribed with promises still exist, like this one...

  • but a lot of them have been destroyed or moved in renovations or just weathered away over time.

  • Despite the millions that ITV spent on trying to leave a mark on history -- their words,

  • not mine --

  • the promises have been almost forgotten.

  • Designing something to last is incredibly difficult,

  • even if it's not just a publicity stunt.

  • But here's the thing: it might not matter.

  • Research has proved an old urban legend:

  • that writing down a goal or a promise makes you significantly more likely to do it.

  • It helps if you tell someone else,

  • it helps if you get it engraved on a monument somewhere.

  • But just the act of committing to something in writing,

  • even if you're the only one to see it,

  • means that your human desire to stay consistent,

  • to stay true to what you think your beliefs are,

  • makes you more likely to achieve it. Or, at least,

  • more likely to say that you've achieved it

  • when a researcher calls and asks you about it later.

  • So I don't know if Kay O'Grady really did overcome OCD,

  • or Susan Moussa really did learn first aid.

  • And perhaps the money that ITV spent on their ill-fated Year of Promise

  • could have been better put to other things.

  • But I'd like to think that all the promises, all the commitments,

  • really did do some good in the world.

  • Even if no-one actually remembers them now.

  • [Translating these subtitles? Add your name here!]

At the turn of the millennium, ITV,

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為什麼你應該寫下你的目標 (Why You Should Write Down Your Goals)

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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