TGIM: Word Fluff and Powerful Stuff

Welcome back to Thank God It’s Monday! One of the biggest distinguishing factors between successful people who achieve their goals and those who are frustrated not getting what they want out of life is simply the ability to do what you say you are going to do. That’s it. That simple. Sticking to your word will dramatically change your life.

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tl;dr If you want to be successful at anything in life, you must practice the skill of keeping your word (to both yourself and others). Every time you don’t follow through on a promise, you cheapen the value of your word. Increase your integrity to increase your chances of success.​
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How many times have you said you would start eating healthier on Monday and you didn’t? How many times did you say you would cut back on ordering excessively from Amazon? How often do you say you’re going to get an errand done but it takes you four or five attempts to actually go?
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Every time you do this you signal to your brain that it doesn’t really matter if you do what you say you are going to do. It becomes more of a suggestion than a commitment, and we all know how much we want to do extra things if they’re not necessary.
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Obviously, as adults, we have the freedom to not have people watching over us to do every little thing (besides our bosses who are paying us to do every little thing). And most plans we make are not life-or-death situations so the stakes typically aren’t very high.
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But insidiously what will happen is that you’ll start to make promises to yourself with no true intention of getting them done. Your word slowly loses value until everything you say is really a toss-up of whether or not it’s going to get done.
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When you aren’t confident in yourself to fulfill your promises, it makes it difficult to set goals such as building a budget or sticking to an exercise program. You can’t assure yourself you’ll stick to your eating-out budget or your workout schedule because you haven’t been able to stick to anything you say. You’ll lose overall confidence in yourself.
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Obviously, it’s hard to stick to doing everything you say you’re going to do. Life happens, unexpected issues come up, and things don’t always go according to plan. However, you intrinsically know if you’ve made your best effort to make sure you reach your goals. And you know when you didn’t make your best attempt.
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You have to make your best attempt to stick to doing the things you say you are going to do every time. If it feels like you aren’t able to fulfill your promises to yourself, you need to reconsider the things you promise yourself you’re going to do. If you’re not realistically going to show up for plans, don’t make them in the first place. If you don’t think you’ll make it to the gym on your own account, don’t make a promise that you will. Make sure your environment is set up so that you absolutely will be able to fulfill your word.
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Your word is gold. People value you based on what you promise and what you fulfill. Even on a lighter note, you know if you’re the friend in the friend group that is notoriously not showing up after you say you will. Or if you’re the employee who overpromises what they can deliver, people expect to be disappointed.
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Successful people (in business, fitness, and life in general) hold their word to a very high standard. They deliver on what they promise and most of the time make sure they overdeliver. If you want to be successful, you have to start fulfilling what you say you’re going to do every single time (obviously barring extreme circumstances). But if you make that your baseline practice, then you will start to prove to yourself you can show up when you need to.
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Start small, like if you say you’re going to get up early, stop snoozing the alarm. If you say you’re going to get to the gym, schedule an appointment with a trainer or a friend to ensure you’ll get there. Whenever you start a sentence with “I will,” make sure you actually will fulfill that promise. The more you prove to yourself you’re going to get done what you say you will, the easier it gets to believe in yourself.

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As Alex Hormozi says, you have to outwork your self-doubt. The more repetitions you can make to successfully prove to yourself you are a man (or woman) of your word, the easier it gets. When you grow your track record to prove to yourself that you get done what needs to get done, you have confidence that you’ll be able to figure it out no matter what.
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If you found some value in this, please share it with a friend you think would enjoy it! And let me know if you’d like to be added to get TGIM. Or visit https://walshwellness.weebly.com/ for older editions and if you’d like to subscribe.

This week my podcast recommendation is from Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness, “The Mindset Mentor: How to Connect to Your Future and Attract Your Dreams Effortlessly.” I listened to this episode before a horrible shift at work so I don’t remember the content exactly that made this episode so good. I do remember the emotion that came after listening to it though which was empowered and motivated so definitely go give it a listen.

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With that, I hope everyone is just as excited as me for this warm weather! Nothing shakes off the winter drag quite like some 70-degree weather.
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Until next time,

Shannon