So I stopped making giant plans. I started making smaller promises. This is what happened:
❌ Old Way: “I will force myself to go to the gym for a hard, 1-hour workout even though I’m exhausted.” = 0 workouts done because I was too tired to even start.
✅ New Way: “I will just lift weights for 10 minutes.” = 3 full workouts completed this week because getting started was easy.
❌ Old Way: “I need to fix my perimenopause insomnia by doing a perfect 90-minute wind-down routine.” = Stressed out, stayed up scrolling.
✅ New Way: “I will just put my legs up on the wall for 5 minutes in the dark.” = Nervous system calmed, slept better.
❌ Old Way: “I’m going to eat perfect, macro-balanced high-protein lunches for the entire week.” = Ordered a takeaway by Wednesday.
✅ New Way: “I’ll just make sure there are hard-boiled eggs or chicken in the fridge and I’ll get some protein powder that doesn’t taste like sand.” = Hit my protein goals effortlessly.
Self-betrayal hurts
I used to start every single day in debt to myself.
I’d wake up already knowing I’d break the big rules I set the night before. (100s of grams of protein! Wake up at 5 AM for fasting cardio! No people-pleasing!)
By lunchtime, my energy would tank, hope would fade and sticky feelings of failure would nudge in. By the end of the week, I felt like my promises meant nothing. Which made me feel quite shit about myself.
For ages I ignored the obvious: smaller goals are easier to accomplish. Sometimes what’s actually in the way is the belief that we have to struggle for everything. But when I lowered the bar to raise my follow-through, I began trusting myself again – because I was actually doing what I said I would. Even on the days when my hormones were all over the place.
That trust is the basis of confidence. And once confidence stops being a feeling you wait for and becomes a habit you own there’s not much you can’t do.
Getting what you want doesn’t have to be a struggle
This approach just taps into your dopamine reward system to make progress feel easy and inevitable – and to build your confidence to do more.
Instead of feeding the narrative that only grueling hard work gets results and you must suffer before you can achieve things.
But this is entirely your choice. How you experience this shows you the choices you’re making. You’re just one choice away from everything being just a little bit easier.
Waking up to broken promises is exhausting. Stop the cycle of self-sabotage and rebuild self-trust – book your free coaching intro call today.
