The Erosion of Self-Trust
We’ve all done it—made promises to ourselves or others with the purest intentions.
We set goals. We make plans. We speak commitments aloud.
But then… life happens. We miss the mark. We forget. We delay.
And while the world may not notice, something inside us does.
Each broken promise—no matter how small—chips away at the foundation of our self-trust.
It weakens our authenticity. It erodes our resilience.
Every great empire is first destroyed from within.
I once promised myself I would wake up early and treat myself better. I realised talking a lot now made a lie or two slip out at times. I promised to speak less too.
I meant it. But I didn’t follow through.
No one else noticed. But I did.
The guilt didn’t explode—it lingered. Quietly.
It gnawed at me.
My inner witness began to doubt my reliability.
“If I can’t keep my own promises,” I wondered,
“why should anyone else believe in me?”
That is how it begins.
Not with a crash, but with a crack.
A slow unraveling.
A quiet betrayal of self.
Reflectintrospection
We often feel hurt when others don’t recognise our value or believe in our potential.
But maybe the deeper question is—do we believe in ourselves?
When we consistently show up for our goals, honour our word, and follow through,
we build something powerful: self-trust.
From that trust grows confidence, clarity, and peace.
But when we break promises to ourselves—skip the commitments, delay the dreams, silence the inner voice—we begin to doubt.
And when we break promises to others, it can damage our self-worth even more than it hurts them.
We silence our inner cheerleader.
That’s when we start looking outward, hoping someone else will validate what we no longer feel within.
The good news? We can change that.
Start small. Keep one promise today. Then another tomorrow. Then another till our words/promises are sacred.
Each act of follow-through is a brick in the foundation of self-belief, of resilience, of can do spirit.
And soon, we won’t need others to remind us of our worth—because we will be living it inside out.
Serenity Prayer
Dear Lord,
Grant us the strength to honour our word,
The courage to face our failures with grace,
And the wisdom to rebuild what we have broken within.
Teach us to trust ourselves again.
To mean what we say.
To say only what we mean.
Let our “yes” be yes, and our “no” be no.
And when we stumble, remind us:
Grace is not the absence of failure—
But the presence of You in our rising.
Amen.
