Keeping Your Commitments to Yourself

One of the biggest challenges with any goal achievement process is actually your ability to keep your commitments to yourself. 

All the planning, strategizing, and tactical steps don’t mean anything if you’re not willing to do what you said you were going to do.  This step is actually where most of us get stuck, and find ways to talk ourselves out of doing what we know we need to do to move forward.

Likely, you’ve never really looked at it as keeping commitments to yourself.  Most of us have established such a strong pattern of not keeping our commitments that we see our current position as the result of external forces, instead of internal ones.  

The inspiration wasn’t there.  I ran out of time.  I didn’t feel like doing it. And so many more…

What has been a game changer for me, is to remember that anything I have planned to do with my prefrontal cortex (the logical planning brain) is a commitment I have made to my future self.  That future person is relying on me to do what I said I was going to do, to give her the life she wants.

In fact, nothing reminds me of this more than looking back at the commitments my past self did or didn’t keep.

When I’m stuck, or struggling with doing what I said I was going to do, I take a minute to do this exercise.

Close your eyes and think about something you appreciate your past self doing that resulted in creating the life you have today.  For me, it was things like saving money, investing time and energy in projects and side hustles, making a healthy choice at lunch yesterday, passing on those extra snacks at the party last week, etc. 

Instead of our default memory, which is usually reflecting on what we regret or wish we would have done differently.  Take time to purposefully thank yourself for the things you did right.  

This exercise will help you realize the power you have to influence your own future.  It will help you remember how each decision you make has an impact on the future you are creating.

Now, revisit your current space and task at hand.  Think about how your future self will respond with each decision you could make.  Which decision will give you the future result you desire?  Are you willing to keep the commitment you’ve made to your future self?  Are you ready to start moving forward?

If you want to explore this concept more, and maybe even practice a visualization with me, join me Thursday December 28 at 1:30MST for our last session of the Where Do I Go From Here Coaching program.  We will be discussing more about commitments to yourself, and practical steps to improve your relationship with your past, present, and future self so that you can finally overcome your roadblocks and get what you desire.