Do What You Say You’re Going To Do

What happens when you break a promise to someone? 

They begin to lose faith in you. Their belief in your word diminishes. Every time you make a promise in the future, they will doubt you.

What happens when you break a promise to yourself?

Have you ever asked that question? I have. And the answer hurts.

Over the last year, this has been a theme in my life: keeping promises I make to myself. If I have said, “I’m going to start exercising more,” or, “I’m going to start getting up earlier,” I am setting myself up for breaking promises and losing trust in myself.

Have you ever made those sort of promises to yourself? STOP IT!

When you make a promise that is open-ended, you will inevitably break it. Why? Because it’s not specific or measurable. I have learned over the last year that my goals (which are often lofty and nearly unattainable) need to include SPECIFIC and MEASURABLE steps.

For example, when I came up with the very lofty goal of becoming a “full-time YouTuber,” I needed some specific, measurable steps. Here are a few:

1. Make a video every day for 100 days
2. Wake up at 5am every morning to get my video done by 8am
3. Decide on a specific direction for the YouTube channel by July 1, 2018

You can see these have very specific numbers/dates attached to them. If I only commit to “becoming a YouTuber,” I will fail. I will disappoint myself and lose trust in myself.

There are, among others, two primary steps toward being successful in life. One is to have specific goals, and the other is to establish smaller, specific and measurable goals toward that larger goal, which you can check off a list.

These two steps work because you can have that combination of always having something you know you can complete, but yet always having something to strive for that is almost impossible to accomplish. I know that I need to have those battles in my life, otherwise I become lethargic and lazy. I begin to drown in my own self-pity and sooth the pain with entertainment. This is no way to live.

Here’s the take-away:

Make a list of your dreams, visions, goals, and plans for your life. Look over that list, and ask yourself, what are some steps that are measurable and specific that you can start working on TODAY?

Let me know how it goes.

P.S. If you’re new here, check out my YouTube channel, starting with this video.