My Promise to ME!

Over the past few months I've been devouring reading material about living a healthier life, limiting stress, and all that good stuff. At first I thought "oh, this will be simple to learn about". Well, not so much. There are SO many different opinions about the subject... like Oodles and Oodles. I am finding that I have to take what I'm learning and find a way to personalize it all so that it meets my needs and lifestyle in a reasonable manner. While I plan to speak more about this is the future- especially as I figure it out, I want to start this out by making a new promise to myself. 


I take promises to myself VERY seriously. I do not go back on a promise to myself and rarely make them because I know how difficult it can be to keep them. In our culture, most people make promises to themselves at the beginning of each year. However, come January 15th, these promises have long since been forgotten. I think the reason for that is this: those promises are UNREALISTIC and almost impossible to work into their daily lives. If that is not you... Congratulations! It's difficult to keep promises to yourself - right? This year I made several promises to myself around the new year.. as I do every year. However, I make a concerted effort to make sure they are attainable. Here are a few.

Photo Via

1. Floss Daily. 
Okay, some might think- "What? That's ridiculous". Okay, a little story. Every time I go to the dentist, the hygienist will ask me how often I floss. I think she already knows the answer and just wants to make me admit it out loud... like I was really going to say "um, when things are stuck in my teeth". So this time during my check up in November (November 9th to be exact) I made a PROMISE to myself to do what ever I could to floss daily. Well, It's April 5th and I think I have missed a total of MAYBE 5 days! YAY!. Now it's getting to the point where I can't stand not to floss.. crazy!.. ok so moving on!


2. Be a better person. This one speaks for itself. I do not feel like I'm a bad person but there are definitely areas that could use some improvement.

Ok, I just love the look on T's face. He was going through
a very serious phase. So glad we captured that!

3. Get better with my pictures. I'll keep this explanation simple. We have lived in our home for nearly 4 years and there might be 4 pictures in frames around the house. I'm really GOOD at making sure I take pictures, but BAD at having them printed, framed, and hung. So, I made a promise to myself to get better at this. So far, I'm doing MUCH better with this. We even had a family picture taken.. It was the first professionally one we had done.


So, that's where my NEW promise to myself comes into play. 


I promise... to live healthier. 


That promise is an all encompassing one. To walk more. To exercise more. To eat better. To get in touch with my inner peace (how ever you do that! HA!). To let myself feel OK with where I am physically but strive for better. To really take advantage of my youth.


Now, this is not a promise to lose 20 pounds. To starve myself. To not let myself enjoy things that make this life worth living. It's just to do the things I mentioned above. Maybe as time goes on I'll add to it. But for now, that is my NEW promise to myself. And I'm REALLY excited about it. I think I deserve it!


My question for you: Do you ever make promises to yourself? What kind? Do you keep them? 


Have a great thursday friends!


-M