Keep Your Promises

Keeping promises to your kids is very important.  It reaffirms your relationship with them and allows them to trust you.  The same thing goes for yourself.  Self-Deception is lying to yourself about something that is going on in your life, and actually believing that lie.

Keeping a promise to yourself is not only the right thing to do, it is the healthy thing to do.  Let me explain.

When we don't keep a promise to someone, we erode the other person's confidence in us.  When you don't keep a promise to yourself, you begin, maybe unknowingly, to erode the most important thing that you possess: your self-esteem.  Self esteem is related to self-efficacy, or the notion of accomplishing the goals that one sets to accomplish, giving oneself a feeling of accomplishment and self-worth.  So the next time you make a promise to yourself, keep it at all costs.  

Knowing the cost of not keeping your promises may change the way you make promises in the first place. Treat them as transactions that will cost you psychological money if you fail.  Treat them so high on your priority list that you give some serious thought the next time that you consider making a promise.  Promises made to yourself should be dealt with like a complex business deal between your mind and your self-esteem. If you need assistance in accomplishing a promise to yourself, like talking to a friend or emailing me here at HPC, then by all means do that.  Use all the tools at your disposal.

The flip side of making too many promises or making promises that you don't keep is never making a promise. This can be equally destructive.  Not making any promises leads to complacency, stagnation, and boredom. Give yourself high enough goals and make small promises and keep those promises in order to accomplish the overall goal.  

So make yourself this promise: promise that you will not make any more promises to yourself or others that you can not realistically keep.  Your self-esteem and your friends and family will thank you for it!