Make an Unbreakable Commitment to You
What does it take to make a leap forward in your life? A little bit of motivation, some self-confidence, and a whole lot of courage certainly help. But at the core of it all, it takes a special type of commitment: a commitment to yourself. Before you can leap, you have to focus inward and work on you.
In the Leap to Confidence classes, that’s exactly what the women do. At the start of the course, they make the commitment to themselves to come to class, participate, and bring the tools they learn into their everyday lives. Seven weeks to work on confidence, esteem, and self-presentation. Forty-nine days to focus on goal setting, defining strengths, and preparing to take the next leap forward.
During the final class of a recent Leap to Confidence course, the women discussed the act of making this commitment to themselves. “I wouldn’t take time for myself in the past because I had doubts…fears,” reflected one woman. When asked how she felt about making that commitment to herself for the Leap to Confidence course, she had one word: “Bizarre”.
Why is it so bizarre to make a commitment to ourselves? When it comes down to it, I can only think of one reason: life can hold us back. From an obligation to take care of others to getting overwhelmed by a busy work schedule, life can get so hectic that it seems ridiculous–and sometimes scary–to focus on ourselves. There are so many other high priority obligations that need to be taken care of, that taking time for ourselves seems outright insane!
But if we want to leap forward towards our best life possible, we need to realize that making a commitment to bettering ourselves is exactly what we need to do in order to live our dream life. We need to step back and go to the foundation of who we are, what we want to achieve, and how we will make it happen.
What commitment you can make to yourself?
Maybe you have a certain work or skill goal in mind that you just haven’t gotten around to. Write it down, see what you need to do to achieve that goal, and start dedicating time each day to taking steps towards it. Maybe you simply have a goal of spending more time doing what you love or what inspires you– reading, biking around your neighborhood, drawing, gardening. Put non-negotiable time in your calendar that you dedicate to doing this activity, and make sure you take that commitment as seriously as you would any doctor’s appointment or work shift. No penciling it into your planner–write it down in ink!
Let’s be honest, this is certainly easier said than done. It’s easy to push off these goals when so many other things are going on in our lives. But shift your mindset and give this commitment to yourself as high a priority as you would give to your other obligations, whether it be work or family life. You’ll be surprised to see how much growth can happen if you just give yourself the time and chance to make changes.
By the way–want to know what the woman mentioned above is doing next? She has enrolled in school and will be working towards getting her GED. Maybe once we start making commitments to ourselves, the idea in itself doesn’t seem so “bizarre” after all!
