Keeping the Promises That You Make to Yourself
Written by: Moira Hutchison, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you or can you trust yourself? How many times have you promised yourself you would save money, lose weight, or clear out the junk drawer in the kitchen? You have most likely made several promises to yourself and broken many of them.
You do this every day. It can be as simple as saying, “I’m going to get started on my new workout routine tomorrow,” yet the next morning, the alarm goes off and you hit the snooze button, and you make a new deal with yourself.
This has consequences. You are teaching yourself that you do not have to take yourself seriously. You are implicitly teaching yourself that it is okay to let yourself down.
Trusting and believing in yourself is crucial. After all, if you cannot trust yourself, whom can you trust?
Here are some ideas and techniques to keep your promises to yourself and add integrity to every part of your life:
1. Use your past as a reference. If you have promised yourself that you would lose 50 pounds but came up short, it might be better to set a more reasonable goal. Losing 10 pounds five times is the same as losing 50 pounds all at once. Make reasonable promises to yourself.
2. Put your promises on paper. Thoughts are a funny thing. They sort of feel real, but they sort of do not. Writing them down is more tangible. Keep your written promises, where you can see them regularly. Review them a couple of times each day.
3. Ask yourself if you mean it and listen to the answer. Down deep, you know if you are serious and committed about your promises. After you make a promise to yourself, ask yourself if you really mean it. Listen to the answer you receive and respect it. If you are not going to honor the promise you made to yourself, make another one.
4. Change your beliefs about promises to yourself. Many of us are much better at keeping promises we make to others than we are at keeping promises we make to ourselves.
● Some part of you believes that it is okay to let yourself down. If you believe that you matter as much as everyone else, this attitude will not be acceptable.
5. Accept the discomfort that comes from following through with your promises. Why do you not keep a promise? It is often only because doing so is more uncomfortable than not doing it. So, it stands to reason that if you were better at dealing with discomfort, you would keep more of your promises. When you are feeling uncomfortable, be determined to work through it.
● Avoiding discomfort or facing it is a habit. Build the habit that will serve you the best. Dealing with discomfort is among the most valuable skills you can build.
6. What would you think of someone who made promises to you and broke them regularly? Would you date that person or call them your friend for long? You think less of yourself when you break a promise to yourself.
● You can see this by considering how you would think about someone else doing the same to you. You would not think much of them. That is what you are doing to your opinion of yourself. Nothing good comes of this. You may not notice it if it is often happening.
Keeping promises to yourself is generally more important than keeping promises to others, yet we tend to approach life from the opposite perspective. The damage you do to your relationship with yourself affects every part of your life.
Treat yourself like you matter and respect the promises you make to yourself. The integrity you build with yourself will make you better at keeping all the promises you make. It will expand into everything you do!!
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Moira Hutchison, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine As an Intuition Cultivator and Mindset Mentor, Moira Hutchison guides her clients to access the inherent power they have available when they ignite their personal trinity of trust, inner awareness, and self-confidence. Moira works with professionals who feel that there is something better in life for them, but they have no idea how to access it. However, they have a yearning to be guided by their intuition and align with their unique calling. What makes her distinctive and different in this work is that she has developed the ability to take complex energetic and spiritual ideas and interpret them in ways that people find easy to understand, integrate and implement.
