After working with people to transform their bodies and lives for over 20 years, transforming different areas of my own life, and studying successful people, there is a common thread in terms of where to start.
People who want to transform themselves often struggle with what to do first. Is it a special diet? A crazy fitness program?
The first step is surprisingly simple.
Make a small promise to yourself and keep it.
It truly doesn’t matter what it is. At this point it’s all about creating a habit and building confidence.
It takes a healthy self esteem and a certain level of confidence to achieve lasting success in any area. A huge part of that self confidence comes from making these small promises to yourself and keeping them.
Sometimes these promises are verbal (“I’m going to start my diet Monday”) and sometimes they’re silent (“I really need to plan my meals”).
Either way these promises are absolutely crucial.
When kept we can become unstoppable and when broken we lose confidence and begin a downward spiral.
If you’re doubting me, think of any success you’ve achieved and I bet you can trace it back to a single promise that started a chain. And any “failure” can be traced back to a single promise that was broken. Maybe it was a first drink or one too many. Maybe it was a missed workout or a donut at the office. I’m not sure but it was something.
Most of you know that about 10 years ago Melissa and I began a journey of paying down over 6 figures (between 100-200K) of non-mortgage debt. I still remember the first credit card swipe that started it.
My challenge to you this week is to make a promise and keep it. I don’t care how small it is. The habit is more important than anything.
You can take it one step further by giving your goal a voice. Write it down or tell someone.
Making the little promise AND adding accountability to it can start you on your path of becoming unstoppable.