Integrity is consistently being honest and ethical.  Doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it even when no one is watching.  We all understand the value of integrity in our interactions with others.  But what about personal integrity.  Do you keep commitments to yourself?

I saw an amazing interview that Ed Mylett did with Chris & Heidi Powell.  You may remember them from the show, The Biggest Loser.  They have helped many people achieve extreme weight loss.  They shared during the interview that when they met with new clients it took only a few minutes to share the eating and motion parts of the program.

What did they deal with most?  Personal integrity.  They blew the contestants away by telling them right off:  “You are where you are because of broken promises to yourself.”

Think about it:  You share with friends that you are starting a diet on Monday.  You run into one of those friends on Tuesday while you are eating a burger and fries.  That friend goes, “I thought you were starting a diet yesterday.”  What happens after having several of those experiences?  You gradually learn not to share your intentions of a diet with anyone else.  You keep that decision to yourself – just in case.

If you keep making promises to yourself and then breaking them, what happens?   You no longer have integrity with yourself.  You are not doing what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it.  Eventually you lose respect for yourself.

You may not relate to this principle about weight loss.  But is there something else you are disappointing yourself with?  Snoozing?  Hitting that snooze button over and over again.  Exercise?   Spending quality time with family?  Being your best on the job?

When you have completely undermined trust in yourself, how do you change? How do you fix that?

Reverse the process.  Choose one small promise you can make to yourself and do every day.  Make it small.  Very small.  Something you know you can do every day.  That is your Power Promise.  You MUST commit.  Do it every day, NO MATTER WHAT.  After a few days it just becomes ingrained in your daily routine – like brushing your teeth.

Keeping this promise to yourself builds momentum over time.  You begin to trust yourself again.  You learn that your word is powerful.  Then add another promise, and another.  Follow through.

As you know, some of the Powells’ clients would successfully lose weight and then later gain at least some of it back.  They interviewed some of these clients and helped the person think back to the moment when they started making wrong choices.  It always came back to ONE SINGLE BROKEN PROMISE.  They stop keeping their Power Promise.  Once they broke that promise to themselves, they lost the internal trust they had built.  They went back to their old habits.

You must love yourself and believe in yourself enough to keep your promises to YOU.

Have integrity with yourself so you can live . . . your life to the fullest.