Keep the promise you make to yourself.

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-discipline is the art of keeping your promise to yourself after the initial inspiration has subsided. We all start the year with enthusiasm to change our lives for good. But for many of us, we don’t keep that promise, and hence, we don’t achieve our goals. As the late American author Jim Rohn often said: “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.” Success is never an accident, while failure is not usually a coincidence. Success and failure are somewhat predictable; Garbage In, garbage-out actions do have consequences. If you put in the work, what is hard will work, but if you take shortcuts, you will be cut short.

Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out. – Robert Collier

Anytime you see someone operating at the highest level of their potential or exemplifying greatness, rest assured that they have kept the promise they made to themselves a long time ago, We get rewarded in public for what we diligently practice in private. Keeping the promises you made to yourself can be extremely tough in the age of social media with a plethora of distractions and options at our beck and call. If you can keep the promise you made to yourself, it is going to be hard to keep the promise you make to others. Integrity is what you are doing when it seems that no one is watching. How you do one thing is how you do almost everything.

It is going to be tough to keep all the promises you make to yourself but by showing up daily, re-ordering your priorities and executing relentlessly, you will achieve your goals eventually. Here some promises that I try to keep daily and some challenging promises I am still working on.

Meditate for 30-40 minutes daily using the Calm and Petit Bambou Apps.
Practice writing daily on this blog
Listen to at least one podcast episode daily.
Exercise daily for at least 90 minutes (Run, Swim, Weight lifting, Cycle, Pickle Ball etc)
Sleep for at least 6-8 hours daily
Read/listen to audiobooks for at least 1 hour daily.
Listen to a French podcast/audiobook for at least 1 hour daily.

Some challenging promises include not getting enough rest, smiling more, spending less time on social media, connecting more, listening more, speaking less, complaining and gossiping less. Like the good habits I have cultivated, I just need to use similar strategies to break the bad habits.

In Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment, American writer George Leonard describes three learning paths to mastery: The Dabbler, the Obsessive, and the Hacker.

The Dabbler

The Dabbler approaches each new sport, career opportunity, or relationship with enormous enthusiasm. He or she loves the rituals involved in getting started, the spiffy equipment, the lingo, the shine of newness. When he makes his first spurt of progress in a new sport, for example, the Dabbler is overjoyed. He demonstrates his form to family, friends, and people he meets on the street. He can’t wait for the next lesson.

The Dabbler might think of himself as an adventurer, a connoisseur of novelty, but he’s probably closer to being what Carl Jung calls the puer aeternus, the eternal kid. Though partners change, he or she stays just the same.

The Obsessive

The Obsessive is a bottom-line type of person, not one to settle for second best. He or she knows results are what count, and it doesn’t matter how you get them, just so you get them fast. In fact, he wants to get the stroke just right during the very first lesson. He stays after class talking to the instructor. He asks what books and tapes he can buy to help him make progress faster. Somehow, in whatever he is doing, the Obsessive manages for a while to keep making brief spurts of upward progress, followed by sharp declines—a jagged ride toward a sure fall. When the fall occurs, the Obsessive is likely to get hurt. And so are friends, colleagues, stockholders, and lovers.

When the fall occurs, the Obsessive is likely to get hurt. And so are friends, colleagues, stockholders, and lovers.

The Hacker

The Hacker has a different attitude. After sort of getting the hang of a thing, he or she is willing to stay on the plateau indefinitely. He doesn’t mind skipping stages essential to the development of mastery if he can just go out and hack around with fellow hackers. He’s the physician or teacher who doesn’t bother going to professional meetings, the tennis player who develops a solid forehand and figures he can make do with a ragged backhand. At work, he does only enough to get by, leaves on time or early, takes every break, talks instead of doing his job, and wonders why he doesn’t get promoted.

“If there is any sure route to success and fulfillment in life, it is to be found in the long-term, essentially goalless process of mastery.”

Keep the promise you make to yourself

Self‐confident people share one habit in common, and that is the ability to keep the promises they make to themselves. When you’re in the habit of keeping promises you make with yourself, you’re on the pathway to self‐confidence. Self‐confidence is also a form of self‐trust, and if you can’t trust yourself, you need to do some hard thinking about your life. Doubts are the products of external factors in your life. They are incubators for negative thoughts. When these negative thoughts grow, they take over all your thoughts, and your mind descends into unproductive and damaging places.

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Shelter

Meditation teaches us ways to develop a calmer state of mind. This practice also has a profound effect on our physiology. As we learn to cope with emotional and mental stress, our bodies reap the benefits of stronger immunity, increased energy, and lower blood pressure. When the body is calm and healthy, the mind quiets. And as our mind grows more peaceful, our body gets healthier, and so the cycle builds.

Trust that each time you turn to your breath, every moment you spend in presence with yourself, you are creating a shelter—a safe, peaceful environment for your thoughts and emotions. You are building your capacity to be with your experience, no matter how stormy the conditions outside.

“Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. So relax.”― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Be Patient, Not Passive

How do we know when to make moves or simply stand by? Whenever possible, we need to take initiative, but then when we can no longer influence an outcome or steer a situation, we have to ease off, and that requires patience. Sometimes, we are passive because we don’t know the next steps to take or we don’t realize that there are steps that we can take. Patience follows pursuit.

Daily Trip with Jeff Warren – You Don’t Need to Be Fixed

You don’t need to be fixed; you just need to hold what is here carefully. When it comes to our bodies, we can’t turn back time; we have to work with what we’ve got. But the way we work is everything.

Podcast