Start small. Trust yourself again.

I’ve written before about one of my mom’s core beliefs: “We go outside every day.”

So I made that commitment to myself recently - even if it’s just five minutes, I go outside.

And I’ve kept it.

And honestly? It makes me feel good about myself. Like if I can keep this one promise, maybe I can keep others too.

Commitments are funny, aren’t they?

We usually think of them as keeping our word to someone else — integrity, reliability, being the person others can count on.

But what about integrity with ourselves?

If you’re anything like me, that track record isn’t always great.

I mean… it took me months of saying I was going to start posting online before I finally had the courage to do it.

Promises to others? Easy.

Promises to myself? A little trickier.

And yes… the “go outside” commitment was public, so that helped. But the private ones? Those are the ones that really test us.

Here’s what I’m learning:

When we don’t keep promises to ourselves, it chips away at our confidence.

It’s like our brain quietly decides, “You can’t be trusted.”

And that shows up everywhere - especially in leadership.

We stop trusting our own voice.

We hesitate to try new things.

Perfectionism gets louder.

All‑or‑nothing thinking takes over.

I’ve started thinking about confidence like a savings account.

Break a commitment? Withdrawal.

Keep a commitment? Deposit.

And the deposits don’t have to be big.

In fact, they shouldn’t be.

Just one tiny promise at a time.

Nothing dramatic, just something you will actually keep.

Set yourself up to win with the little stuff.

Five minutes outside.

One glass of water.

The first five minutes of the thing you’ve been avoiding.

Every time you keep one, tell yourself:

“I got this. I can trust me.”

That’s how confidence starts to grow again - one small deposit at a time.

Be honest… do you struggle with keeping commitments to yourself.

Type “yes” below.

If not… type “no” and I’m going to need your secret.