How to keep promises to yourself

Hiya lovey!

I was talking to one of my clients this past week about some writing she had agreed to focus on in the weeks prior that she hadn’t been able to complete.

She was feeling frustrated with herself and guilty for not following through.

When we dug into it the reality of her weeks a bit  more, she had done a number of other things that had pushed the writing to the side. 

But she still felt that uncomfortable feeling of saying she was going to do something and then—for one reason or another—choosing not to do that thing.

You’ve been there, yes? 

I for SURE have in all kinds of ways. 

I tell myself I’m going to not eat sugar that day or actually focus on something that stresses me out for my business (often that something includes numbers and spreadsheets) or that I’m going to do the dishes after I make dinner (and then I don’t).

This from a woman who meditates EVERY morning for 30 minutes. 

Sometimes it’s hard to do all the things.

But what about when you really want to keep a promise to yourself?

Let’s zoom out a bit and talk about the mindset you have around that.

How about instead of doing what many of us tell ourselves “I always show up for others, but I have trouble showing up for myself,” you start saying, “I always keep the promises I make to myself.”

That’s step one. Start building in that belief.

Step two is to start small. 

If you set up twelve different ways that you need to keep promises to yourself that may be just shy of impossible. 

If the promise is, “I’m going to meditate for at least 5 minutes every morning and I know I’m going to do this because I keep the promises I make to myself,” that feels different from… “I’m gonna try to meditate and we’ll see how this goes.”

Speak with certainty and you’re much more likely to show up with certainty. 

Step three is to feel the discomfort and keep going through it to keep that promise. 

Because it’s going to be uncomfortable until the scale tips and it feels uncomfortable not to do it. 

Step four is to reset when you miss a day. 

When my clients are working to build in a new mindset, I will often give the assignment for them to do something for 30 days and then restart if they miss a day.

No one wants to restart from square one so this process has built in accountability for sticking to the goal.

And for keeping that promise you made to yourself. ;) 

Once you’ve got that one promise kept, like clockwork, for thirty days or more, THEN you can make a new promise to yourself. 

One thing at a time. 

If you have trouble keeping promises to yourself, whether that’s in your personal, spiritual or business life, I can support you in rewiring your patterns and becoming the person you truly are under all of your trapped emotions and unhelpful beliefs.

Jump on a discovery call here to see if there’s some patterns you need breaking so you can start keeping more promises to yourself. 

Big, big hugs,

Rebecca*