𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟

I recently have been on a reading kick. If you know me you know I've loved reading since I was little. But I don't read as much as I use to (thanks to social media and school) but I've decided to start back reading as much as I can. I recently started "Girl, Wash Your Face" by Rachel Hollis. I am only 2 chapters in but highly recommend this book. It's on sale right now for $13.97. While reading this book one specific paragraph stuck out to me, when we break promises to ourselves.

To quickly summarize what Hollis says, is that when we tell ourselves we are going to do something and then decide not to because "it's been a long day", "we don't feel like it", or "our tv show is too good to pause". All of this can lead to us no longer "believing in ourselves", we can make promises all the time but know we will never follow through. This creates bad habits that tumble over into our extended relationships. Lately, I have found myself in this exact habit for two different situations.

The first, when people asking me to grab a coffee, lunch, and or dinner. I find myself wanting to make excuses for being too busy or classes falling in that time range. I talk about wanting to hang out with people more and then when the opportunity arises I want to be flakey? Like what? But here's the deal, if I'm being flakey on "me" time (aka when I can just relax and lay in bed) then how am I suppose to convince myself I have "free" time to spend with friends. If I start taking out even a 1-2 hours a day to just have some quiet time with myself- even if it's not texting anyone- I am able to invest in my friendships more and be able to pour into them. If I pour into my self I am able to pour into others. It sounds so simple, right? But, here I am having to write about it because I struggle with it. I think the best way to do this is putting aside a specific time in the morning, between classes, during your lunch break, on your drive to school/work, or at night you will find a lot more energy to pour into other and invest in your relationships.

The second place I find my self-struggling is in working out. Caleb and I made an agreement to start working out again. I am not a huge fan of running but really want to get into running shape. Christmas break hit me a little bit harder this year than last and definitely didn't like were my habits were headed. So for the last couple weeks, Caleb and I have been good about going to work out- at first, it was every day but slowly life started creeping up (surprise surprise) and every day turned into every other day or every two days. Which turned into workouts hurting more and not being as progressive as I would have hoped. How does this apply to the book you may ask, well surprisingly (sarcasm obviously) Hollis had this same problem? Her solution set a goal for a certain number of days (not every day) and hit your workouts hard. Some days just do a brisk walk with others and the next day hit a hard cardio workout. This is something very manageable. This is my new goal, instead of trying to accomplish a goal that just isn't reasonable for me I will instead pick out 3-4 days a week and really work. Breaking a promise to yourself on self-care and your physical health is a promise I believe shouldn't be broken. Making time for yourself is pretty important, I would say it's right under time with God and time with your family.

One thing I challenge you to do is take some time to make a list ranking your priorities and promises you can keep. For example

1. Making time for the Lord (1 hour a day)

2. Setting aside time to invest in school (2 hours a day)

3. Making that daily phone call or text to your mom (30 minutes a day)

4. Spending time in the gym (45 minutes 3 days a week)

and so on. I believe this is an easy challenge and a helpful challenge. See how you feel about your health, your relationships, and your faith after 30 days. If it's easy to add time (if it's reasonable) to each priority if this was a challenge to keep then keep up with it for another 30 days.

So let's get to keeping promises!

xoxo,

Liv

Uncommon James - Nashville