You said you'd start Monday. Then the first of the month. Then after the holidays.
Most of us aren't short on good intentions. We know what we should do. We've even started a few times. But somewhere along the way, we quit trusting our own word.
That's the real problem. It's not the workout, the diet or the Bible plan. It's that we keep making promises to ourselves and breaking them - and every broken one quietly tells us who we are.
It's not about how hard it is
Here's what I've come to believe. Most of the things we say we'll do aren't actually that hard.
Seventeen minutes of walking isn't hard. Reading a few verses in the morning isn't hard. As the late, great Jim Rohn said, these things are easy to do - and easy not to do.
So when we don't follow through, it usually isn't about difficulty. It's about whether we can keep the promises we make to ourselves, period.
My coach Ed Mylett talks about self-confidence this way: it comes from keeping the promises you make to yourself. Every time you do what you said you'd do, you build a little more trust in you. Every time you don't, you lose a little.
Why we keep falling back
Great leader, pastor and author Craig Groeschel says you do what you do because of what you think of you. Tony Robbins says the strongest force in the human personality is the need to remain consistent with how we see ourselves.
That's why we start strong and drift back. We fall back to that which is familiar - even a familiar discomfort. We're sick and tired, but we're not yet sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The Bible has a crazy example of this. The Israelites are freed from slavery. They watch the waters part. They walk through on dry ground. And then, in that unfamiliar place, they want to go back. Back to slavery - because at least it was familiar.
I'm not judging anybody. I've done my own version of that more times than I can count. I come from a family with a lot of health struggles, and I've watched what happens when the familiar wins over and over. I don't want to repeat the same year again and again. I want to grow through life, not just go through it.
I hit the snooze button too
Let me be real with you. I love getting up early. The first minutes of the day are my favorite time. And recently I hit my snooze button without even knowing I'd done it and woke up way later than I planned.
I was not happy with myself. Here I am coaching people on this stuff.
But I had a choice in the next minute. I can't control my first thought. I can control what I do next. So I went straight into my morning routine anyway - putting good stuff in first.
That's the whole game. Not perfection. The next promise kept.
And it applies to my faith too. For a lot of my life, I was a believer who wasn't living it out. I'd tell people, "I'll pray for you," and then I didn't. I'm not proud of that. I finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired of my spiritual fitness. Now if I say I'll pray for you, I pray for you. Sometimes right then. I'm not a pastor, and I'm still a work in process. But keeping that small promise changed something in me.
From hope to proof
Here's the shift I want for you: moving from hope to proof.
When it comes to working out, I don't hope I can do it. I know I can, because I've done it so many times. I have proof. I know how I'll feel after.
Some of you don't have that proof yet. You hope you can stick with it. That's okay. Proof is just reps stacked up. Do it today. Do it again tomorrow. Pretty soon you're not hoping - you're knowing.
And honestly, the people who inspire me most aren't the lifelong athletes. It's the folks who never really worked out a day in their lives and show up anyway.
Scripture says it plainly in James 1:22: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Knowledge is not power. The application of knowledge, consistently, is where the power is.
Your One More Rep: 17 minutes, don't miss two
Here's your One More Rep. Start today - not on a Monday, not on the first of the month. A random day is perfect, because the only thing it's the first day of is you deciding.
Do 17 minutes of honest movement every day for the next 17 days.
- Any movement counts if it's honest effort: walking, slow walking, stretching and mobility, resistance training, rucking with a backpack.
- Pick a level you can actually keep. Some days it'll be easy, and that's enough. Some days it'll be the hardest thing on your list.
- If you miss a day, don't miss two in a row.
If you don't have time, get up 20 minutes earlier. And if you have health concerns, check with a doctor who knows something about exercise before you start.
The movement matters. But this is really about becoming someone who keeps their word to themselves.
Seek God whether you feel like it or not
Motivation disappears. Feelings come and go. I've learned to seek God whether I feel like it or not, and that same muscle helps me show up for everything else.
You are one of one. There's never been another you, and there never will be. When you become a better version of you, you make the world a better place - and, as Rory Vaden says, you become more equipped to serve the person you once were.
So keep one small promise today. Then keep it again tomorrow.
God bless. Have a great one.
