Mastering Your Inner Excuse Factory: Keeping Promises to Yourself

Welcome back to another day of our constant dance with progress and setbacks. Feels weird meeting in your inbox on a Thursday! But yesterday we had an impromptu email. Moving on!

Today, we're shining a spotlight on: the assortment of excuses we serve ourselves when we fail to keep the promises we've made.

Confession time: I had a goal this week, three simple tasks I vowed to complete. And guess what? I didn't. Sound familiar?

You know the script: you commit to start something, but then, suddenly, you're playing the negotiator in your head, finding all sorts of "reasons" why it's okay to back out. And the cruelest part? You comfort yourself with small white lies, then end up hating the person in the mirror for not sticking to the plan. Because, at the end of the day, it's not just a promise broken - it's a promise to ourselves that's left unfulfilled.

Here are two ways we often compromise, and the first steps to change:

1. "I have no choice."

We love this one, don't we? For me, it was, "I can't work, I have a concussion." Or, "I can’t promote my work; it wouldn't even impress my grandma."

These excuses create limitations on ourselves. A fake identity to fit a narrative where we lose. Not all of your choices will be a-mazing but they’re yours to make not your parents, friends, or even me.

Action Step: Banishing the No-Choice Myth

• For every "I can't", challenge yourself with a cheeky, "Says who?"

• Life isn't a black-and-white movie. There’s a million nuances.

• Realize who’s setting these either-or options. Your neighbor? Aunt Sally? It’s time you decided.

2. Believing in Yourself: Mission Impossible?

Everyone loves to say, "Believe in yourself." But it gets tricky when doubt and fear are your comfort zone.

Behavior Action Step: Sowing the Seeds of Self-Belief

• Acknowledge your fear and doubt, but don’t let them steer your life.

• Hang out with people who build you up, not those who amplify your doubts. You’ll know the difference. The crap friends will actively drag you down and say it’s out of love. Manipulating a-holes.

• Give yourself a high five every day for even the tiniest win. Finished your coffee while it was still hot? Achievement unlocked!

Your ultimate action step: Take a good, hard look at yourself and your situation. Embrace it, the good, the bad, and the cringe-worthy. The road to real change starts by acknowledging where you are, not where you wish to be.

Choose yourself, not the myths.

Your brutally honest friend,

Nichole.

I talked a lot. Time to hear from your side. What’s going on in your life that you’re struggling with? Respond to this newsletter and let’s talk about it.