I’ve set goals. Lots of goals. You’ve probably set goals too. Sometimes I’ve been successful achieving those goals, sometimes not. I’m sure you’ve had the same experience. Achieving goals can be the best feeling in the world, and not quite getting there can be soul crushing.

Unfortunately, too many of us end up on the “not successful” end of the goal achieving spectrum.

In fact, a 2018 study by the University of Scranton found that only 8% of people who set New Year’s Resolutions achieve those goals. Only 8%.

There are other studies that put the number between 7-20%. No matter how you look at it, the statistics are daunting. Basically, if 10 people set out to achieve a transformation goal, only one or two will actually reach it. Let that sink in. Out of 10 people, 8 are left heartbroken…continuing to struggle. Why?

Related: Click here for my top ten ways to make + keep promises.

In over two decades of helping thousands of people through the journey of transformation, here’s what I firmly believe is the underlying, foundational #1 reason why:

Most of us don’t understand the power of personal integrity.
In other words, we don’t do what we say we’re going to do, when we say we’re going to do it.

And yes, you might have rock-solid integrity with others—you will keep your word when you commit to others, but for whatever reason, you don’t treat yourself the same way.

Wondering how your integrity holds up? Here’s a test:

• How many times have you told yourself, “The diet starts Monday!”And then it doesn’t. Monday after Monday after Monday.
• What about: ‘I’m going to set my alarm early and do a morning workout!’ And then you hit the snooze button for the entire hour.
• Better yet, have you said “2019…2020…2021…2022 will be my year!” How’d those years turn out for you?

Starting to get it? We may have integrity with others, but many of us have neglected our own personal integrity, and it has cost us joy, confidence, and our overall health and wellness.

I have always approached my clients NOT by seeing them carrying hundreds of pounds of excess body fat, but carrying hundreds of pounds of broken promises.

Why Integrity + Keep Promises Matters

Integrity isn’t something that you have all of a sudden. To build it requires action. You have to commit–promise you will do something, and then do it. The follow-through completes the action and establishes integrity! And then you do it again, and again, and again. And you start to change–both mentally and physically. Just as every past broken promise broken lead you into darkness, despair, and self loathing, keeping promise after promise builds you back up: Your confidence, your esteem, your self love…and your health!

Think of it this way: Each promise is like a rung on a ladder. If the rungs are too far apart, we have to leap for them, and most of the time we will fall into the abyss. But if the rungs are close together, we can climb! We can finally reach the goals we have always dreamed of achieving!

For a goal to lose 30 lbs. super simple promises are made AND kept:

•  drinking an extra cup of water
• eating protein at every meal
• getting 15 more minutes of sleep every night
• working out 5 minutes a day

These promises build that ladder—rung by rung—that gets you to that goal. Keeping promises is the key to achieving any goal. And I mean ANY goal!

How Keeping Promises to Yourself Helps You Achieve Your Goals

Promises keep you in that winning mindset, which leads to more winning. They give you incredible momentum, like a freight train of personal integrity. And it will feel so good, you won’t want it to stop. You won’t want to break the streak. Each time you keep a promise to yourself, you take control of your destiny and put yourself in the driver’s seat of your own life.

Builds trust and confidence in yourself. If you’ve broken promises to yourself over and over again, how can you trust yourself? You don’t believe you can achieve your goal, and those feelings can and will undermine your ability to succeed. But, when you keep promises to yourself over and over again, you start to realize–and TRUST–that you can do this. Even better, you will quickly realize that you can do more than you thought, and you’ll be more likely to try new things. You will start to wonder, “If I can do that, what else can I do?” That is when the fun really begins. 🙂

Increases your happiness. When you’re keeping your promises to yourself and improving your mental and physical health in the process, you are much more likely to experience moments of well-being, feelings of satisfaction in life, and feelings of happiness, and let’s be honest: Happy people accomplish more, happy people are more fun to be around, and happiness can be contagious to those around you too!

Allows you to serve others better. When you’re prioritizing yourself and keeping your promises to yourself, it gives you greater capacity to better serve those around you. You can’t pour from an empty bucket, and self-care fills that bucket over and over again.

Sets a good example for others. When you’re consistently doing the things that will lead to success, others will notice, and they’ll be motivated and inspired to do the same. Whether it’s your spouse or significant other, brothers or sisters, friends, co-workers, or your children, they’ll see the positive impact that keeping promises has on your life and they’ll want to do the same.

Creates the champion mindset When I did Extreme Weight Loss, I’d have contestants who’d promised themselves they’d do 30 minutes on the treadmill. If I tried to pull them off that treadmill at 29 minutes, they’d fight me to stay on that treadmill. Would missing 1 minute on the treadmill ruin their weight loss progress? Absolutely not. But the power was not in the treadmill. They understood that power was in the promise.

All of these things together make up that ladder. Those single promise kept grow your integrity and dignity even more, and a single promise broken can start a devastating backslide. Keeping promises to yourself that snowball into more and more success…THAT is the mindset of a champion!