Stop Breaking Your Own Promises

If you had a friend, and this friend always said they were going to achieve x, y, and z, but never even gave it a real go, or every time there was a gathering or event that they were invited to they turned up late, how much would you believe this friend the next time they made a claim that were going to achieve something, or actually be on time for once.

You wouldn’t, really, would you?

So what makes you think you can actually achieve the goals you set when you’re constantly being that friend?

What makes you think you can follow through with the big stuff when you can’t even follow through with the trivial stuff?

But that’s just it, isn’t it? They’re trivial, so why should they really matter?

Well, all of these seemingly insignificant broken promises compound into something much bigger, they all stack on top of one another, creating the ultimate, lingering sense of disbelief. 

Although these little promises, like waking up on time, or not eating chocolate or drinking alcohol, might seem small in the short term, each one is another bit of evidence, evidence that suggests that you might not have what it takes.

This feeling may sit beneath the realm of the conscious, but rest assured, it still exists.

It’s there when you set the big goal, just as it’ll be there waiting for you when things get tough, waiting to pounce, waiting for the slightest bit of discomfort, then boom, a flood of self-limiting thoughts comes rushing through.

And what’s your defence? You have none, because you're guilty. Case closed.

Or, you can keep these promises, and instead of having a mountain of evidence that suggests you’re incapable, you can have the opposite. So when things get tough, and the road gets bumpy, you don’t have to speculate whether or not you have what it takes, because you know so.

The compound effect is always at play, and when it comes to believing in yourself, there isn’t really a better way of using it than to stack evidence, the good kind.

So the next time someone brings cake into the office, or the next time that alarm goes off, do not let the “no biggy” thoughts win, because it is, in fact, a biggy.

You are what you repeatedly do, not what you say you are or claim to be, so who do you want to be?