The Leadership Line

Commitments, Calendars, And Keeping Promises To Yourself

• Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer • Season 7 • Episode 1

Share episode

New year, clear eyes. We open the door to 2026 by examining what 2025 really taught us about promises, time, and the quiet habits that make or break momentum. Instead of scoring our stop, start, continue pledges, we dig into what changed just by naming commitments out loud—and what didn’t change until we wrote them down, protected time, and owned the tradeoffs.

We talk frankly about integrity and self-trust: when a “commitment” is just a wish, confidence leaks and imposter feelings grow. Shifting from corporate calendars to self-directed days didn’t magically fix that; freedom without design becomes drift. So we get practical about time ownership—guarding Mondays, blocking deep work, and leaving space to think—while staying accountable for outcomes. Autonomy doesn’t cancel delivery. You can decline a meeting and still ship the result, as long as you plan, communicate, and accept the consequences of your choices.

The conversation gets real around morning routines, distraction, and the lure of “productive later.” We unpack how an hour of daily writing turned into a last-minute sprint to hit a book deadline, why compression carries a hidden tax, and how to rebuild with smaller starts, better environments, and visible commitments that stick. On the team side, we show how early asks, clear windows, and honest client expectations transform emergencies into scheduled work—and how to handle true fires without normalizing chaos.

If you’re ready to treat your calendar like a promise and your promises like a path to real outcomes, this one’s for you. Subscribe for more practical growth conversations, share with a teammate who needs stronger boundaries, and leave a review to tell us the one promise you’re writing down today.

Karman:

Welcome back, Tammy and Scott.

Tammy:

2026. Scott, come on. It's a new year. This is good stuff.

Karman:

One of the things that I love about working with Become More is how great we are as a team, as a group, at saying, like, what did I learn from that? Whatever the thing is. And so I wanted to spend a couple of our first podcasts here in the new year looking back at 2025 and just talking about what did we learn from being in this place or trying this thing or making this commitment. And the place to start is the stop, start, continue pledges that the three of us made in early 2025. Now, listeners, you can't see that Tammy has her hand on her forehead right now, but um she's got her hand on her forehead. And we're not going to talk about whether you did each thing, whether I did each thing. But the question is, what did we each learn by having that thing on our list? So as a review, I will remind us what did we have on our lists?

Tammy:

Oh, you know, Karman, um, 2025 was a hard year. Oh Lord. So yes, we will the excuses begin. We will we will go back and we will review, but I have to be honest with you, I'm so looking forward to 2026. So I can shut the door on 2025, but I'm willing to do this because this is what we do. We learn from past experiences. So let's go. I'm ready.

Karman:

Yeah, all right. So here's the review, and it's funny that Scott said let the excuses begin because the thing that Scott was gonna stop doing was accepting excuses. He was gonna start honoring Mondays as an internal meeting day, and he was gonna continue being innovative. Tammy, you two out of three ain't bad.

Scott:

Like there's a song about that.

Karman:

Oh, can you well, there's probably copyright laws, but that takes me right back to high school in my in my heart. Uh Tammy, your stop was stop not doing things with other people. Like you wanted to have more social stuff planned. Yep. You wanted to start writing for an hour and you wanted to continue your health journey. Yep. I said I wanted to stop procrastinating, I wanted to start having some 30 to 60 minute tasks that I could drop into the middle of my day, and I wanted to continue being a good listener. So the question again, the question is not necessarily how did you do on each of those things, but what did you learn by having that on your list?

Scott:

You know, Karman, what we might want to ask is did we actually put it on a list and pay attention to? Because that's my one learning lesson. I'm like, oh, I remember talking about this. I remember the excuses thing, and I feel like I've done a lot better actually. Tammy and I were talking about this with especially with vendors. I've really clamped down on vendors and I feel generally good about that. The others, I don't know that I wrote that down anywhere. So there's a learning lesson in and of itself.

Karman:

Yeah, that's a great lesson.

Tammy:

Like I mean, we want to make it happen. Yeah, we say stuff, right? We make quote unquote commitments, which in all honesty is a promise, which sometimes I don't think we really get the fact that when we make a commitment, we are making a promise, a promise to ourselves and a promise to others. And when we break those promises, especially when you break those promises to yourself, there is actually a major impact on your self-confidence. That whole thing about like that imposer, um, imposer, imposter, imposter syndrome, right? It's this piece that when we start lying to ourselves, then we start doubting ourselves, right? So there's some I I love Scott, what you just said in that space because reality is is we shouldn't make commitments lightly. This should be something that when we say that we're going to do something, that it is something that we really mean. And if we don't really mean it, I mean, not writing it down is a great example of saying, well, yeah, we had this conversation, but what did I do with it? Right. And if I go back into my 2025 calendar, and uh those of you who don't know me that well, I still use a paper calendar because I like to be able to see it, and on the front page of January is where I have written down all of my commitments for the year that I made with my husband and I made in this podcast because those were the big places that we have made commitments that were big ones, right? Not just the hey, yeah, I'll pick that up from the dry clean, I'll pick the dry cleaning up this afternoon. This was kind of my big one. So I did write mine down. So yeah, I love Scott's point. Now, the second part of that is just because you wrote it down doesn't mean you did it, right? In that space. And so for me, one of those things is I'm gonna be honest with that piece. That that writing for an hour, the intention of that writing for an hour was to write every morning and to write every morning instead of doing things that were not productive, right? Because I find ways to like not be productive in the morning and just sit around and do things I kind of want to do, but they're wasted excellence.

Karman:

I mean, I don't think we can call wordle wasted excellence. Let's just be clear.

Scott:

I just need to it's better, better to say colossal wasted excellence.

Tammy:

And it is, um, I would love to tell you like word all would be a better use of my time than what I'm you doing. And it is, it is. I love this phone and games in the morning while I'm having my coffee, and it's really easy to be distracted. So that you know, that thing, yes, did I write for an hour? Well, if you look over the year, I probably did, right? But did I write for an hour every morning where I was productive instead of being unproductive? And the answer is no. And so that is this piece that it's like I think the learning lesson again is be really careful about what you say yes to because keeping your promises to yourself and to others, it's about integrity, it's about your own belief in yourself. And I think sometimes we make promises and commitments without thinking, right? And we should stop and think about what we're saying yes to. How about you, Karman?

Karman:

You know, a couple of mine were centered around organizing my time. And I think my takeaway from the year is I can I'm still learning how to organize my time intentionally in this chapter of my life. When I had a corporate job, I sort of let my calendar, I was at the mercy of my calendar and what other people and what the production schedule necessitated being on my calendar. And so, like being my own boss, except for Scott and Tammy, of course, like I can do what I want to with my calendar, which is pretty great, but I'm I'm still like getting better at it. And the sort of the realization that I need to be intentional without packing the day full, which is you know what my old life required. And I'm getting better, but I still need to keep exploring that, and I need to keep exploring the procrastination piece. And like, what's really behind that?

Tammy:

Do you know that freedom, that freedom of choice? I think sometimes even in corporate America, we think I don't have the freedom of choice, right? Which is really what you just said. Like other people did this, the the corporate job filled that in for me, and recognizing that we actually do have choices all the time, but it's one of those things, and it's an interesting thing. It's like it's one of those things where when I really end up going, I am responsible for my choices, right? I don't have that place to lay it in somebody else's lap. So many of us have not practiced and made the decision to be in control of that, and so now you can be, because we're not going to control it, Karman. I mean, that's Scott and I way too much other thing to do than to control your time. And in that space, it's always interesting because most of us don't practice it throughout our careers of literally coming in and saying, I am going to be the king or queen of my time and my priorities, and I am going to fight for that. And I think that's a great thing to for everybody to remember. Doesn't matter if you're in corporate America, you're self-employed, whatever that is, you still can be the king and queen of your time and make choices about what's really important to you. Now, when someone else is your boss, they're gonna impose some stuff, but there's a lot of stuff that's there's still a lot of freedom in there, and recognizing you do have the power to control a lot more than you think that you do in that space.

Karman:

And I do find also in the unhealthy bucket, like when I let other people control my calendar, then I start to get resentful. You know, like today I don't have enough time for this, and it turns a lot of like things that should be fun into have-to's instead of get-to's. And that's a good that's another good reason to like take control, is so that I'm not resentful of other people.

Tammy:

Isn't that weird? Because you know, it's like giving people power in that space. Over time, you do get resentful, you're giving it away, and then you get mad at them, but you should be mad at yourself for not taking control in that space. Yeah, I love that.

Scott:

For me, it's interesting because as I think about it, I think there's a slippery slope here. So I agree we need to exhibit control on time, effort, energy, and we have to we have responsibilities to achieve certain outcomes, certain results. And so that's also this piece of it would be really easy to say, well, I I'm gonna I'm gonna take control, but and I'm gonna use that as an excuse to not have achieved my well, you said I should take control. You said uh so we also have to remember with taking control, there is a responsibility of if you don't achieve the outcome because you chose to say no to this meeting or to go do something else or whatever that is, you might have to take your licks sometimes.

Tammy:

Do you know, Scott? That's I love this particular point because in the end, I can choose to just eat candy bars all day. Okay, and I love eating candy bars, I actually don't, but I love eating candy bars.

Karman:

I love I freaking love candy bars, right?

Tammy:

It makes me happy and all that kind of stuff, right? In the end, you also have to understand you get what you deserve. Okay, and I I know that that sounds like a really harsh statement, okay. If you are doing all this stuff to be self-centered and to like self-soothe or whatever that thing is, I want this, I want this, this is what I should have in my life. There are consequences when you make those decisions. So as you're making them, think about them very carefully. Because if you're doing all the stuff but you don't get results, and you're saying, but I managed my calendar and I did what I wanted to do, your boss, your company might say, Yeah, but you didn't do what we needed you to do or what we hired you to do. You're not adding the value that the organization needs. So it is this piece about you also have to have this maturity around that. Because if I sit around and eat candy all day long, that health journey that I was also part of my commitment, I would be much, much, much bigger than I am today because really all I want to eat is pecan rolls, caramel pecan rolls with all that caramel stuff on the top and those nuts and all that kind of stuff that we had on retreat. I have some of those in my refrigerator right now, and I really want to eat them this morning. I'm choosing not to because it's better for me, right? So it's not about self-indulgence. Karman, you were gonna add something.

Karman:

You know, we have objectives to achieve, and our teams have objectives to achieve. And I think that's one of historically one of the hardest places for me to control my calendar is when I feel like, oh, I I don't want my calendar to be the thing that prevents you from getting your job done. Uh, how do you guys feel about that balance? That's a great question.

Scott:

The balance piece makes sense to me. I keep thinking about balance in what time frame. If I look at it, you know what? I might say, you know, this week I was out of balance and I needed to be out of balance because I had a big due date and I procrastinated back here, I didn't do whatever. Okay. So I think you also have to look at I believe it's over the course of months that I have to look at versus any given day or any given week.

Tammy:

And I think as a team member, okay, if I'm gonna need Scott's time, and by the way, I needed Scott's time. I said, Scott, this is the issue. I need your brain on this thing because I can't figure it out without you. And here's my time frame that I need your brain on that. And that's something I actually brought to Scott's attention, oh, probably a week and a half ago-ish, right? And so Scott and I got on a phone call uh this morning and kind of talked through that. And at the end of that, I said, Do you want me to talk to the client about that? Or is that something that you could be on the phone call to help? Because you really understand this better than I do. And Scott's like, oh no, I should be on that phone call. And so we looked at his schedule and we we looked out, and he gave me three time periods over the course of three days in the same week, right? This is being a good teammate. I'm not waiting until the last second. Scott, I need you right now. Okay, I haven't made it an emergency. I'm far enough out in my calendar. I am making the commitment to the client far enough out in the calendar so that we can fit it in, meet the client's need by setting their expectation further enough out so that I am not imposing, Scott, you have to drop what's important to you in order to do what's important to me. And I think as teammates, sometimes we're not thinking far enough out and saying, Karman, I'm gonna need you the last week in January. What does your schedule look like? And can we get that thing scheduled? I think sometimes I wake up on Monday morning in the last week of January and I'm like, Karman, I need you this week. I need you right now. And in fact, I'm meeting with the customer on Tuesday and today's Monday. Okay. That is not being a good teammate, and then that puts the pressure on you for you to change your prioritizations instead of me looking far enough out and asking for your time so that you can put it in your calendar. Now, if it's a true emergency, and there are emergencies, guys, there are times when we have to go fight a fire. I also have to raise the flag and say, I'm so sorry I'm doing this to you. However, I should be doing as much as I can to not create a fire. Okay. Sometimes I'll respond to a fire, but don't create one by not thinking out far enough, right? And by the way, going back to our learning lessons for the year, that writing every morning, I had not done it the year before. We had a book that we published in 2025, and I had to kill myself in February and March and April in order to get that book published for a deadline that we absolutely had. And part of it was I did not plan my time, Karman, right? I didn't utilize my time, I let other things get in the way, and so therefore, yeah, did I get my writing in one hour a week or one hour a day? Yep. I just did it in a very compressed time frame where I didn't do anything else in order to hit that deadline, and that's a really great learning lesson, Tammy. What did you do, right? What caused that? And are you gonna continue to do that or are you gonna like learn a new lesson? I'm 64, I'm gonna be 65 in just a little bit. I'm still learning stuff, which Karman, that's the other part I loved about what you said. It's like, you know, you and I are closer to the end of our careers than our beginning. We're not done learning, we're still trying to figure stuff out, and that is also a great reminder from 2025. We're not done yet, we still have things to learn and grow, and I think that's cool.