(ThyBlackMan.com)It’s easy to break promises you made to yourself. Some people program their mind to accept failure. This is not always about big disappointments, but with small incidents, it becomes a habit. Why you break a promise because you know that it will only affect you and no one else. You know that those broken promises will spoil your life and no one else is going to get affected. The problem is many people have trained themselves in a way that they are able to accept disappointment, mostly when it comes from self.
If you are struggling to keep the promises you make to yourself, here’s what you can do so that you won’t let yourself down again.
“The first and best victory is to conquer self.” – Plato
Evaluate the cost of a broken promise
When we break a promise we made to someone, we know it will hurt them and we literally feel it. But when we break a promise we made to ourselves, we feel the pain but only when it’s too late. The 
problem is we do not evaluate the cost of a broken promise and that’s how we keep breaking promises, but there’s an easy solution. Evaluate the cost of every promise you break.
Note down what you say to yourself each time you break a promise. Track how often you break your promises. Know what’s the cost of each promise you break. It can be a loss of money, self-respect or a goal. If you start tracking these things, you will get to feel the ‘real’ pain. It is almost the same pain you feel when you break a promise made to someone else. That fear of a potential pain pushes you to avoid those situations at any cost and you find the time and willingness to keep your promises. Try it, it works because you will start making things happen.
Know where your focus is
Do you think of ways to escape from the promise when you should actually think about how to make things happen? For example, you promised yourself that you will complete a certain task on a particular date, but later on that day, you realize that you haven’t made any progress. Now watch your thoughts. Even when you still have time to complete the work, are you still thinking about the ways to escape? Have you started thinking about making a good excuse? If you do this, just shift your focus from finding excuses to giving yourself the last chance to keep that promise and deliver.
There are times when we waste an entire week and worry about what needs to be done. Instead of worrying or finding a way to break the promise easily, focus on giving yourself that last chance and make things happen. It is one of the best ways to keep your promise to yourself.
Understand your promise
The third and the most important trick to keep your promise to yourself is understanding your promises. When you promise something, think about it in depth. For example, if you have promised yourself that you will start meditation and make it a habit. Focus on what you will need to keep your promise to yourself. You will need a fixed schedule when you will be sitting for meditation. Think about the most suitable time, the most suitable environment and whatever you will need to keep that promise. When you dig deeper into something, you actually make yourself believe that you are serious about it and as a result, you start getting interested in this activity.
“Sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them.” – John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars
Give a chance to yourself before finding any excuse. Give yourself time to understand what you need in order to keep a promise to yourself. Know how much cost you are going to pay if you fail to keep your promises to yourself.
At the end of the day, it’s all about how reliable you are. It starts with yourself. You are smart, you are capable enough to go above and beyond the average lifestyle. Keeping a promise to yourself is the best thing to do. Wouldn’t your life become amazing if you do it?
Staff Writer; Corey Shaw
Have any Tech Tips? News? Hit up our Tech Guru at; CoreyS@ThyBlackMan.com
