I do not know why it is so hard for people to change their habits and to stop doing things they have been wanting to for a while or start doing something they have been putting off, especially when it comes to improving their health. But, one thing is certain, most of us are resistant to change, and many of us struggle to keep the promises that we make to ourselves.
You would think that as clever human beings, we would at least be able to trust ourselves completely and want to make choices that improve our health. A lot of people have the self-discipline to make a promise to themselves, such as promising to give up sugar or stop snacking between meals to be healthier, and to commit to it fully from that point onward.
My husband is one of them. I cannot be trusted, and I often have to ask Jonathan to help keep me accountable and help me stick to the new health habits that I actually want to develop. I cannot believe that I actually say things like: “can you please make sure that I do not eat this?”
Even though what I want most is to eat healthily, so that my skin can improve, the last bit of excess fat can melt off my body, and I can be as healthy as possible, I am usually happy to sacrifice what I want most in my life and health for the promise of a sweet treat in the present.
You do not want to lose credibility with yourself, which happens when you keep going back on the promises that you make to yourself. In terms of the number of times I have broken the promises to myself that I would not overeat or pick my skin, it is shocking how little I should be trusted.
I am not proud to admit it, of course, but I do not want others to make the same mistakes I have over the last fifteen years of trying to change my unhealthy habits, but failing. At this point, I am trying to regain credibility with myself.
One of the biggest problems for me, currently, is that when I set a goal for myself, I do not believe I will actually do it, as I have self-sabotaged too many times in my life. As history suggests, I will probably overeat within the first three days of trying not to, and I will probably snack too much while cooking over the weekend.
There is no way I can commit fully to a workout programme currently (although this goal might not return for years or even ever). It is a lot more fun for me to just focus on being active often, rather than trying to force myself to stick to a workout programme. I now just do what I feel like doing, and am actually more active than before.
Perhaps there are promises that you have made to yourself in the past that you no longer really want to keep. It is okay to let some of the promises go and to allow yourself to start with a blank slate. Forget how you have broken promises to yourself in the past and how you have failed. All that matters is that you keep them going forward.
Build credit with yourself by keeping one or two small promises to yourself, and then, as you succeed at keeping one small promise at a time, you will start to feel more confident.
It will start to become easier to keep bigger promises to yourself. If you have started to follow through on your promises, you will start to trust yourself more, and will perhaps even take on much bigger changes that you want to make, as you know you have become the type of person who does stick to difficult things.
This is one of the keys to self-confidence, I believe. I realised this when I realised that the main reason why I feel bad about myself and feel like a failure at times is because I keep breaking the promises that I make to myself.
But, one by one, I will try to keep one small promise to myself and build up a good reputation with myself. Ask yourself what the one promise is that you really want to keep to yourself, and do it.
