To climb your personal mountain…you must commit to you!

Okay, so let me be real. I might climb a trail up a mountain, but I’d never rock climb. I’m just not that kind of gal. I’m more the dancer and singer type than the athlete. However both activities require a commitment. A promise that you will keep going even when it gets tough… because the show must go on…

So when I make a commitment I keep it. Unless, that is, it’s a commitment to myself. Those are always the hardest ones to keep. Is that true for you too?

The fact is, it is true for many of us and that’s not a good thing! Every time we break a promise or commitment to ourselves, we not only feel disappointed in ourselves, we also give power to the ‘doubter’ within who is always there making us question ourselves.

That little voice that says things like, ‘you will never make it’, ‘who are you kidding,’ ‘see, I knew you were fooling yourself”, ‘you can’t do it and never will so you might as well quit’.

Any of those words sound familiar? I know I’ve heard them before. And every time I say I’m going to do something for myself and I don’t…those words get louder!

And the louder that voice gets the less likely I will ever climb very high or sing very loud! Right?

Because it takes courage to step out of mediocrity and create the best life I can imagine. It takes trust in myself and my abilities to push beyond my fear of failure and judgement into success. It takes persistence to learn new things that will enable me to step out of my comfort zone and push myself beyond my self-imposed limits.

I know that if I make a commitment or promise to someone else and don’t keep it, over time that person will stop trusting me and may even decide not to be in my life anymore. And I’m very intent on not letting that happen because I want their friendship. I want them to trust me. I want them to respect my word. So I keep my promises to them. And as a result, they see me at my best. In their eyes I’ve climbed pretty high up that mountain and sung that song loud and clear! In fact they usually think I can accomplish anything I want because they have experienced me coming through for them and therefore must be able to do that for myself.

When I keep my internal promises…

then that is exactly how I experience myself as well. When I keep my commitments to me, the doubter becomes mute and I hear another voice inside my head. She is a cheerleader. She is older, stronger, and very uplifting. She says things like, ‘knew you could do it’, ‘yahoo! good job’, ‘okay baby, what’s next?’

And I feel amazing. I get a sense of greater power, more choices, and deeper feeling of trust in myself. I begin to feel my creative juices flowing, have a greater feeling of optimism and hear myself saying ‘yes’ to opportunities more often than I say no.

You determine how high you will climb and how loud you will sing!

And it starts with keeping your promises to yourself. So start with little things that you know you can do! And each time you keep your commitments, celebrate! The little promises you keep will give you the strength to keep the bigger and perhaps more challenging ones. One step at a time.

Here are some examples of the little ones I started with…

Journal every day
Take a 20 minute walk each day
Drink 60 oz of water a day

I know they might sound simple. But for me, since starting with these simple promises, I have added some big ones that I now trust myself to keep. My sense is that my upper limit has been raised a few levels now. I believe I can do what I want as a result of keeping my promises to me.

Try it with the little stuff for a week. Then add something a little bigger or more important and notice how much easier it is now to keep your commitments to you!

Till next time, live easy and be kind to yourself.