A promise you keep to yourself counts. It’s practice for the ones you’ll make to other people.

The promises nobody witnesses are the ones that teach you what your word is worth. Break them routinely and you learn, quietly, that what you say about yourself does not have to mean much. That lesson does not stay private, because it shows up the next time you tell someone else you will do something.

Make one commitment this week that is small enough to be certain of and specific enough to check: a time, a number, a day. Keep it exactly rather than impressively. Then make the next one slightly larger and notice that it is easier than it was.