Sometimes it’s hard to put yourself first. I know in my own personal experience I would rather see someone else’s happiness over my own. As I've grown and changed and experienced new things, ideas, and events, I’ve realized there are a lot of promises I need to make to myself. Promising things to myself are the hardest to follow through on. I know I’ll do whatever I can to keep a promise to someone else, but to myself is a different story. When you make a promise to yourself there is no one to hold you accountable for it, except you. Making promises to yourself are things you must keep in your heart and make a priority. There are several things I’ve realized I need to do after the past few weeks and months, they include:

1. I promise to put my feelings first.

It’s not fair to throw myself out on the line for someone that will never give it back to me. The more I’ve experienced both happy and sad things the more thing makes sense. In almost any situation I find myself in, my feelings should come first. And when I find myself in a situation where this isn't being honored, I should do something to change it.

2. I promise to not expect too much from people.

Almost my entire life, if not my entire life, I’ve found myself being disappointed. Disappointed by someone or something for expecting them to do something they never said they would do. I’ve found myself assuming people would do certain things because it is the right thing for them to do, or even it’s what I think would be the right thing to do. Looking back on the past few months and especially the past year of my life I have come to terms with this. I promise myself to let things be what they're going to be and let people be who they're going to be to me. If they go above and beyond for me than thats something to be joyous for, but if they don't I can't be heart broken about it.

3. I promise to set boundaries for myself and others.

Again most of my life I’ve found myself becoming uncomfortable in many situations because I haven't set a responsible boundary. This mostly relates to people’s negative comments to me. I believe, as we grow up it is important to realize what things don't work for us, or what things were not okay with. By setting boundaries everyone becomes more comfortable in a situation and no one has to worry about what they're going to say or do.

4. I promise to know who I am and not let other people put me down.

Dorothy Parker once said “I don’t care what is written about me so long as it ins’t true.” I really love this quote because it's a great idea to live by. I promise myself to know whats true about who I am. I promise to try my hardest to throw out the negative and untrue things people say about me because I know who I am and I am confident in that.

5. I promise to try to address issues when they happen.

No more just waiting and hoping things resolve. I owe it to myself and my own piece of mind to fix the problem when it happens. I wouldn't let a pipe keep leaking until it bursts, so I shouldn't do that in my life either.

6. I promise to find my joy.

Finding things that bring me joy in life is hard to do. Between school, working, life, family and friends taking time for things that make my heart happy has never been easy. I think the most important thing I've learned to do in try to share the things that bring me joy with my friends and family so I can always make time for it.