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Writer's pictureMichael Hernacki

Discover Your Power: Keep ONE Promise



If you’re anything like me, you’ve been breaking promises all your life.  You might say, “Hey! Not me. I keep every promise.” You might say that, but you know it’s not true. You break promises all the time. 


I’m not accusing you of being unreliable to others. You might be one of those rare people who unfailingly keeps their promises. But I’m willing to bet even you break promises to yourself. 


Whenever you break a promise, whether to another or just to yourself, you diminish your own power. You take the strength, the value out of your words, and you’re left with just words. On the other hand, when you keep a promise, especially if you do it consistently, you tap into a source of power you may not know you have. 


Here’s a simple example. For years, I had excruciating lower back pain. I didn’t want to take pain pills and I learned that surgery was too often unsuccessful. That left exercise as the only other remedy. I tried exercising, but when I didn't get results right away, I dropped them. And I continued to suffer.


One day a friend told me he had a similar problem, and he beat it. How? I asked. He said, “I decided that if I had to live with this pain, I’d rather die. But I love life, so I made a promise to myself to exercise every day. Every single day. No excuses. If it hurt, I’d do very little. But I did some of it every day.”


He exercised daily for two years before the pain finally went away. He still does the exercises today, advising, “When the pain goes away, don’t stop. If you do, it will come back.”


When I expressed doubt that I could stick to such a promise, he said, “You brush your teeth every day, don’t you? The reason you do it is you’ve resigned yourself to it. Like it or not, you brush your teeth every day. This is no different.”


That convinced me. So I started doing my exercises every day, just like he said. Well, it’s been a few years now. The pain has not gone away completely, but it’s greatly diminished and I can do almost all the physical activities I want. Very few men my age can do some of the exercises I do. For example, since I started my daily routine, I've worked myself up to 72 pushups every morning. Keeping that one promise has been a powerful factor in my overall health, self-confidence, and self-esteem.


One promise. Just keep one promise. Find something you always seem to say you’ll do, even if it’s a “little” thing, and resolve to just do it, every time. A kept promise is no little thing. Should you stumble, don’t give up. Start over. 


If it’s a daily activity, keep that promise for one full week. If it’s a weekly promise, keep it for three months. Then see what it feels like to finally make your word the law in the universe. Do it for another period, and observe how your personal power, your own belief in yourself, grows.


Try it. And see what happens. 

 


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