5 Strategies for Keeping Your Promises to Yourself
Can you put your faith in yourself? How many times have you told yourself that you would save money, lose weight, or clear up your kitchen junk drawer? You have probably made hundreds of commitments to yourself, the vast majority of which have been broken.
This is something you do every day. It may be as easy as telling yourself, "I will do squats during commercials," yet the commercials come and go, and you never get off the couch, so you create a new agreement with yourself for the next time you are watching TV.
This has potential consequences. You are telling yourself that you do not need to be so serious about your commitments to yourself. You are inadvertently teaching your brain that it is acceptable to disappoint yourself. It is critical to trust and believe in oneself. After all, who really can you trust if you do not trust yourself?
To maintain your commitments to yourself and bring integrity to every aspect of your life, use the following techniques:
Make use of your previous experiences as a guide. If you told yourself that you would drop 50 pounds (22.68 kg) but didn't, it might be time to establish a more realistic target. It is the same as dropping 50 pounds (22.68 kg) all at once if you lose 10 pounds (4.54 kg) five times. Make commitments to yourself that you can keep.
Make a list of your promises. Thoughts are amusing creatures. They have the appearance of being genuine, yet they aren't. It is more tangible to write them down. Keep your written commitments in a visible place where you can view them frequently. Every day, go through them a couple of times.
Ask yourself whether you mean it, and then pay attention to the response. If you are serious about the commitments you have created for yourself, you will know it deep inside. Ask yourself whether you genuinely mean it when you commit yourself. Pay attention to and appreciate the response you get. Make a new commitment to yourself if you will not keep the one you made to yourself.
Change your convictions on your commitments. Most of us fulfill our obligations to others far better than we meet our responsibilities. Some of us think it is all right to let go of it. This attitude is not acceptable if you feel that you are as important as any other person.
Accept the suffering caused by your commitments. Why are you not keeping a promise? It might be simply because it is more unpleasant to do so than not. So, it is reasonable for you to keep more of your commitments if you had been better at coping with pain. Be resolute in fighting through it when you feel uncomfortable. There are many things in life that make us feel uncomfortable, yet we still do them. You are the most important person in your life, so keep that promise to yourself.