Why We Need to Honor Commitments to Ourselves!

Does the concept of self-care sound foreign to you, and do you often prioritize others over yourself?

How’s that approach working out?

Imagine this scenario: You’ve decided to take a much needed walk close to your home, and put on your walking shoes, anticipating the joy of listening to your favorite podcast out in the fresh air.

Just as you step out the door, the phone rings, and you answer it.

A friend has a non-emergency and wants to chat, and instead of politely explaining that you’ll return the call after the walk, you skip the walk and engage in the conversation instead.

In doing so, you unintentionally dishonor the commitment you made to yourself, and the self-care moment was over!

Is this a pattern in your life?

People Pleasing!

Why are the plans we make toward our own self-care not important enough to make an effort?

We make excuses about being too busy by watching tv, playing games, shopping, spending time on social media, or talking on the phone.

Does any of this sound familiar?

When we break commitments to ourselves, we choose to not show up which creates much disappointment.

When it comes time to do something for ourselves, our brains tell us to do everything except what we’ve committed to.

Our brains also tell us that it’s more important to honor commitments we’ve made to others, than to ourselves.

Instead of choosing self-care and creating our own internal happiness, we’d rather receive praise and approval from others in order to feel good about ourselves.

This is called people pleasing.

It might feel a little strange to not drop everything for others, but it’s what we’ve got to start doing in order to care for ourselves!

Things pop up all the time that will distract attention away from our own plans.

Doing for others first is fine and noble, but again, it’s not good if it’s interfering with our own self-care.

Plan for Obstacles!

We have the ability to change the habit of breaking commitments to ourselves by intentionally planning our day knowing there may be obstacles!

It’s best to create strategies for situations that might pop up, such as other people’s needs and demands.

We need to put ourselves and our own self-care first to be the best we can be.

“Honoring the commitments you’ve made to yourself teaches your brain that you can not only follow through on something but are capable of changing your behavior. Once you’ve managed to teach your brain that you can change one behavior that makes it much easier to change others” according to Unmistakablecreative.com.

It helps to create a list of all possible obstacles with strategies to implement, if need be.

Let’s say we’ve finally set a goal to lose those extra pounds.

We’ve committed to sticking to a healthy protocol, and our loved one brings home an unexpected box of donuts, that aren’t part of our protocol.

Happily, we know exactly what to do because we’ve planned for these types of situations, honoring our commitment.

Just smile and say “thanks, but no thanks”!