In an inspiring story emerging from Boston, MA, 24-year-old Dana Wright just took stock of her life and realized she breaks a promise that she made to herself – on average – every 15 seconds.
“My friend was telling me that a great way to increase your self-confidence and achieve your goals is to make sure that when you make a promise to yourself, you stick to it,” Dana told reporters gathered at the scene. “I had never heard of ‘making a promise to myself’ but as soon as she described it, I realized I’d been breaking those all the time.”
Dana’s friend Vivian gave the example that when she tells herself she’s going to go to bed at midnight and wake up early, she makes a point of sticking to that plan, as this is a way to increase self-trust.
“If I say I’ll go to bed at midnight but actually go to bed at 2am, I’m slowly whittling away the confidence I have in myself to actually do the things I say I’ll do,” Vivian continued. “All the small things add up! So now, when I say I’m going to ‘finish my novel,’ I believe myself and trust that I’ll stick with that goal.”
Dana let out a very prolonged “hmmmm,” as she counted the number of times she’s broken a promise she made herself in the last couple of hours.
“Well, I said I’d eat breakfast and then didn’t do that, so kind of an immediate ‘L’ on my part,” Dana told reporters, counting the broken promises on her fingers until they exceeded the capacity of her hands. “Then, I said I’d leave the house by 10am – didn’t do that. Didn’t get my groceries even though I told myself I would, didn’t drink a glass of water. Wow, I don’t trust myself at all.”
As far as any promises she has actually kept, Dana told reporters that she promised to let herself take a break once she finished a work task.
“I didn’t finish the work task, but I did take the break!” she continued. “That counts, right? That’s a promise I kept!”
Reporters contended that no, this did not count, because she broke the promise that she would first do the work task, which seemed like the harder thing.
As of press time, Dana had decided she would start making a concerted effort to honor the promises she made to herself. This would be more impressive if the first promise were not “to buy herself lunch.”
