Self-trust ledger · also called track record with yourself
why do I not trust myself to follow through anymore
A self-trust ledger is the running, largely unconscious tally your own mind keeps of promises you made to yourself versus promises you kept. When the ledger runs negative for long enough, your brain stops believing new commitments before you have even broken them, because the record, not the feeling, is what it trusts. The fix is not a bigger promise. It is a small one guaranteed to clear.
The next promise you make to yourself will be judged by the last hundred, not by how much you mean it this time.
What to do about it
Pick a commitment so small you cannot fail it, keep it today, and let that be the only new entry on the ledger.
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Quit Negotiating With Yourself$6.99
Crushing Soft Habits$6.99
The Discipline Blueprint$6.99
Discipline Over Motivation$6.99
The Iron Routine$6.99
The 5AM Tax$6.99
Standards Beat Goals$6.99
Show Up Anyway$6.99Part of the Discipline series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- why do I not trust myself to follow through anymore
- I have broken so many promises to myself I stopped believing them
- I know I will not do it even while I am saying I will
- how do I start believing my own commitments again
- I talk myself into things and then do not do them
- rebuilding trust with myself after years of not following through
- I feel like my own word means nothing anymore
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.