A few years ago, I was part of a particular choral group in my place of worship. When I joined the group, I wanted to learn how to play drums. Then I met with the instrumentalist to put me through. He gave me the routine of how the drum training would be. Then I started. But even when the training was over, I still made it a point of duty to be practising on my own. On the days we had our general choir rehearsals, I would come about 1 hour early, just to practise the drums on my own and try out new styles I watched on YouTube. I kept the routine, and I improved, and I became among the first choice drummers for the group. I kept to the promise I made to myself and I got the blessedness in it.
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Some people try as much as they can to keep the promises they make to others, but what about the promises they make to themselves? You have to understand that a very fundamental key to success is not about how well you keep to the promise you made to others, but how well you keep to the promises you have made to yourself. Many people are quick to honour commitments made to friends, family, colleagues, loved ones, or even to their work, but they easily break the commitments they make privately to themselves. Over time, this habit could weaken their confidence, self-respect, and discipline.
By keeping promises you made to yourself, you build self-trust. In everything you do, you have to understand that building trust requires consistency. If you say you will do something; like waking up early, studying for this number of hours, exercise your body, complete a task, etc, and you follow it up to the latter, you send a very powerful message to yourself that you can rely on yourself. This inner trust is what will become the building blocks to create your confidence. It will also make you to begin to believe in your abilities to achieve the goals that you have set for yourself, which will also be proven through your actions.
On the other hand, not keeping to your commitment, or breaking the promises you made to yourself has negative effects and consequences. Each time you delay an action that you are supposed to make, or say to yourself "I will do it tomorrow," you will weaken your self-confidence. You may not even notice it immediately, but over time, it will form a habit within you, and it will create a pattern of inconsistency. A point may even come when you will begin to doubt yourself, and when that happens, it will affect your progress negatively, and may also demotivate you from taking steps towards your dreams.
To keep the promise you make to yourself, you have to discipline yourself. You do not just do things when you feel motivated to do it, but you do them because they need to be done. Even though your feelings can change, but your commitments should remain steady. The ability to act without a recourse to how you feel or your mood, is what separates those who achieve their goal from others. It may not be convenient to do a lot of things, like keeping to your routine, taking certain steps, etc. But you still need to do them as a matter or necessity, not as a matter of convenience.
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It is worthy to note that keeping to your promise may not even require some very massive stride, you can actually start small. It does not also mean that you should set unrealistic goal for yourself, or you should do things that are very difficult to maintain. Instead, you can start small with smaller commitments; like waking up at a set time, reading a few minutes everyday, completing the task at hand before relaxing. These things may look small, but they actually set the stage for more bigger things. As you keep small promises, you build the momentum required to keep bigger promises. It will also make it easier to achieve your goal with confidence.
You also need to understand that when keeping a promise you have made to yourself, you have to be flexible and realistic. If you miss a commitment, do not beat yourself over it, and do not give up completely. One single mistake does not cancel your progress. Just acknowledge it, learn, adjust if necessary, then move forward. After all, the goal is not about perfection, rather it is more about consistency, dedication, and commitment.
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