Making And Keeping These 11 Promises To Yourself Is The Key To A Happy Life

We spend our lives making promises to other people: our friends, family, employers. But so many of us forget to make promises to ourselves. These commitments can help you stay accountable to reaching your goals if you stick to them. These 11 should get you started on the journey towards living your best life (and will definitely improve your overall well-being).

1. Accept Your Body. Promise yourself that you’ll work on accepting your body. I know you don’t love everything about yourself, but that doesn’t mean you should hate what you don’t love. Your body is beautiful and supports you every single day. Be nice to it. Eat foods that support your system and be as active as possible. Not with a focus on losing weight, but with a focus on treating yourself well.
2. Live Every Day The Right Way. Every day is an opportunity to chase your dreams and make decisions that benefit your overall well-being. Start your days off by doing something you love. Drink coffee, listen to good music, read a chapter of a book. You might not realize it, but every day matters. That’s why you should begin your days with reflection and finish your days with plans for the next.
3. Stop Trying To Control Everything. The fact is that you can’t control everything. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll be able to breathe again. People do whatever they want. And life can change in an instant. Instead of trying to control what happens to you, focus on controlling how you respond to what happens to you. After all, that’s all you really have control over.
4. Choose Your Battles. It’s important to pick your battles and avoid meaningless confrontation. I’m not saying you should be passive, but you don’t always need to fight with someone who makes you mad. Ignore your boss’s eye-rolls and your mom’s constant questions. Promise yourself that you’ll remain calm and not take everything personally. The last thing you want is to burn bridges with people you need on your side.
5. Don’t Compromise Your Values. You know what you believe in, but you also know how easy it is to be swayed in the opposite direction. Don’t let that happen. Live your values every day and make sure people know where you stand. If you speak your truth out loud, you’ll feel closer to it. Walk the walk and talk the talk. If you do that, you’ll never lose sight of who you are.
6. Lead With Kindness. Some people are downright horrible but that doesn’t mean you should be horrible to them. The best way to live is to treat everyone with respect and kindness. The truth is, you never know what people are going through and you never know the impact your words can have. Try to be kind to everyone, even strangers. Not only will this garner the respect of others but it’ll improve the way you feel about yourself.
7. Stay Motivated. It’s not easy to stay motivated when your dreams feel unreachable. What are you going to do? Give up? No. Don’t let outside opinions stop you from chasing what you want. Does that mean you should sit at home and wait for things to align in your favor? No. You should get out there and work. If that means starting at the bottom to get to the top, so be it.
8. Don’t Hide Your Emotions. Make yourself a promise that you’ll express your emotions when it’s in your best interest. Don’t hide your feelings for someone you like or avoid speaking up at work. Bottling up your feelings is never a good thing. It’ll make you go nuts and probably cause you to miss out on a lot of opportunities.
9. Prioritize Yourself. It’s not selfish to make yourself a priority. If you’re not happy, life will feel like work. That’s why everyone’s obsessed with self-care. You need to feel good in order to survive this nuts and weird world. Make yourself a priority. Don’t put yourself on the back-burner for someone else or ignore your voice to keep the peace. Do what you need to feel good (within reason, of course).
10. Live In The Moment. Enjoy that cup of coffee and croissant. Don’t focus on what you have to get done. Live in the moment and don’t rush things. If you do, you’ll take them for granted and you’ll spend more time thinking than living. This is the only life you’ll have so live it slowly and try not to miss a thing.
11. Be Realistic. Promise yourself that you’ll make promises that are fair. For example, don’t promise yourself that you’ll be a millionaire by the age of 30 when you’re already 29 with a depleting savings account. In order to stick to a promise, it needs to be realistic. Don’t set yourself up for failure by asking yourself for too much. Have goals, and standards, but don’t put too much stress on yourself.