Follow-Through With Commitments To Yourself

Have you ever had somebody make a commitment to you, then not follow-through on it?  Feels bad.

Have you ever made a commitment to yourself, then not followed-through on it? Feels worse.

There is no better way to build up your self-respect than by holding yourself accountable. Setting goals, determining your values, or committing yourself to action, then following-through on them.

It some ways, it’s easy to let our own personal goals slip. No external pressure is put on us, so it feels okay to just let things slip. Skip a workout here. Press the snooze button a couple of times there. Eating healthy? I’ll start that again tomorrow. But in a lot of ways, our personal goals are most important.

If you can’t commit to yourself, who can you commit to? Taking ownership of your life means that you need to develop a mindset where you are in control.  If you don’t follow-through on your own commitments, then you quickly begin to feel less and less in control of your own life. This is a downward spiral that takes momentum to drag yourself out of.

Make your personal commitments personal.

How To Follow-Through on Commitments

Take Ownership – When you make a goal or commitment in your life, own it. Don’t treat it as a “maybe”, either it’s a yes or a no. If it’s a yes, then you need to tell yourself that it’s your responsibility to take action.

Few, But Important – Make sure that you are not over committing yourself, and instead focus on determining the vital few. It’s easy to let commitments slip if you are trying to do too many things at once.

Be Specific – Wishy-washy goals and commitments that we make to ourselves are impossible to achieve. You need a finish line.

Create Baby Steps – If you are trying to commit to something big, like losing 25 pounds, or becoming debt free, learn how to break your goals into baby steps.  Create mile markers along the way that allow you to accomplish early and often.

Feel Good – Let yourself win. When you are following-through on commitments, acknowledge to yourself that you are in control of your life.