From a young age, we have always understood the importance of a promise. The sanctity behind the two words "I promise" is unmatched. However, quite often I feel like we put more weight on promises we make with others than those we make with ourselves. It's almost as if cheating ourselves is okay, because no one really gets hurt, right? WRONG. We're only hurting ourselves. While it is noble to put others before you, the duty one owes to their self is also one that needs to be respected.

While I fall off the wagon of self discipline at times, I feel that as a society we must adopt the belief that each and every one of us is worthy-- worthy of love, respect, and praise. However, until we make a promise to ourselves that we truly believe in "me" and commit to these promises we will make no strides. So to get the ball rolling, I want to showcase thirteen promises that I have made to myself. While everyone’s story is different, I feel that there are some pages we can all relate to. I hope that as you read, you find something to connect with, and something that you find worthy of promising to yourself.

So here it goes...

1. I promise to understand that I am a human— wonderful in some ways, flawed in others. But my worth is not determined by either. In fact, life is all about balance, and without the good (or bad) life would be anything but humanly.
   
   
2. I promise to think before I speak— regardless of the company I share, I vow to be the person who adds to the level of conversation. I won’t gossip just to keep a certain social group. I won’t flirt just to keep the attention. I want to work to make the world a peaceful place, and words are powerful things, so I promise to spread nothing but love with mine.
   
   
3. I promise to love myself— size 20, or size 2 I am a gift from God. He crafted me with a purpose in mind and I will not ridicule his creation. I will not starve myself to look like the girls from the magazines, I will not eat my feelings because I had a bad day. I will adore the temple that the Lord has given me. Everyday I will appreciate the health that I have been granted and pray for those less fortunate than I.
   
   
4. I promise to love others— friendship is a seed that should be sown in every sort of garden. All of us are so unique, in fact there is NO ONE who is 100% the same, which makes me realize that since we are all so different, we all have magical things to offer to the world. And by showing compassion and love, we can help others realize how valuable they are.
   
   
5. I promise to never lose hope— love may make the world go round, but hope helps keep us grounded when the ride gets rough. The future is an entity that no formula, equation, or algorithm can predict, so I refuse to worry myself with issues that haven’t even happened. I have a life filled with love from my family, friends, and God, and that is all the reassurance I need to know that everything is going to be okay.
6. I promise to get my priorities straight— In years past, I struggled with trying to figure out who I really was. Was I the nerdy friend? Was I the loud party girl? Was I the mother of the group? These minor identity crises would distract me from things that really mattered. I spent so much time trying to please everyone in my life, that I forgot to take care of myself. My grades began to suffer, I was tired all the time, and I seemed to never truly be happy. So then I realized, that i had to quite putting up a front, and just be myself. When I began working on myself—making the right things a priority, my world changed. Life seemed more like a gift, rather than a performance.
   
   
7. I promise to be honest— regardless of how hard it is, despite the feelings it may hurt, I WILL NOT LIE. When you are dishonest, you are robbing a person a piece of reality. At times it is difficult, especially when you want to do nothing but keep the peace, but I learned that there is a way to handle every situation, and being honest helps you and the people involved in the long run.
   
   
8. I promise to stay loyal to my dreams— There have been many nights in my life where i’ve stayed up into the early hours of the morning to study, only to get a less than a satisfactory grade, while others spent a fraction of the time I did yet managed to get a better grade. This is an incredibly disheartening process. However, nothing worth having comes easy, and this is exactly the mindset that I vow to keep. Yes, I will have struggles, but I am not the only one. At the end of the day, I would rather have a few failures and reach my goals, than give up and be a failure entirely. Furthermore, I promise to understand that dreams can develop. What I once dreamed would be my future, doesn’t necessarily have to remain the same. What should remain the same are my goals— which are to serve humanity to and live a life where I am truly happy.
   
   
9. I promise to forgive and FORGET— It is so very important to learn to move on. But moving on means leaving what happened in the past, in the past. Of course, there are lessons that I learned from certain mishaps in my life, which i’ll never forget, But I won’t pin an emotion to a person. I may have been Angry, disappointed, and hurt at one time, but these emotions were only weighing me down, furthermore one action of a person doesn’t dictate who they truly are. People can change and they can grow, so I will leave the past in the past, because it is freeing my soul from the burden of a grudge.
10. I promise to never let the same person hurt me twice— previously I promised to forgive and forget, but I also mentioned to not lose sight of the lesson each situation had taught me. Despite how much I want to believe that a person has changed (and I will always hope that they have) if there are certain behaviors or actions that they continue to exhibit, I will respect myself enough to move on. I deserve to be happy and if someone is an unnecessary stress in my life, I vow to be strong enough let them go.
11. I promise to not get attached to worldly things— While it is nice to have the newest gadgets and clothes, I have to realize that in the grand scheme of things materials do not matter. I have to focus on things that truly make me a better person, and make the world a better place.
12. I promise to strengthen my sense of empathy— Sometimes I won’t understand the reasoning other’s have behind their actions, however that doesn’t make them wrong. I will stride to be more understanding and truly put myself in the shoe’s of others. If I want people to be more understanding of my ways, I must keep an open mind for their’s.
13. I promise to understand that sometimes I will not be able to keep all these promises--- "To err is human…” In a perfect world it would be easy to do everything I promised to myself. There would be no temptation, no loss of patience— nothing to sway my soul. But as I know, the world is far from perfect and so am I. It is an acceptable thing to mess up, but it's not to give up, so I also promise to try my best to get back on track whenever I do stray from the path I am making for myself.

People with good intentions make promises, but people with good character keep them. I think the world can use some more good people.