A friend sends me a message via Facebook Messenger. “Trey, I have my personal training exam in a few days and I am freaking out! Do you have any pointers?”

I know that whatever I will offer her may just add to the delirium that studying and exams bring us. “Just to stop freaking out! Pause. Breathe. Pause. Breathe. There is a very intelligent voice within us all that speaks to us as we are composed.”

The earth feels like it’s losing its foundation of gravity whenever we are on the precipice of going through with our promise. In a few days, my friend will take her exam and be grateful that she simply followed through with all of her work.

On the moment of precipice, just before we are going to embark on our pledge, there is a prevalent feeling of suspension that is vaguely present during our preparations. It scares us. It convinces us we are not ready. It says we need to be better. “What if I was wrong?” it says. This is compromise.

What is unsettling about compromise is that it can’t really be seen by others around us, yet it rocks our body’s ordinary functioning. We look fine on the outside, but on the inside we seem to be shutting down. To settle internal compromise we just need to do three things. Pause. Breathe. Visualize.

When we pause it allows us to gain attunement with the feeling of suspension and all of the erratic nerves that come with it. The second step, to breathe, calms us down to a point that we can sustain optimal physical and mental functioning. Third, visualizing, gives us the emotional and spiritual standpoint that provides the necessary strength to follow through with an ultimate promise we made to ourselves.

This will give us composure into the next moment. Composure over compromise is a big difference in just a few seconds of time. It’s the difference between “I will follow through this time,” or “I will pass it off until the next time.” It only takes seconds to decide this!

Fulfilling your intention is the most important factor in building composure. With composure you eliminate compromise, and what remains is promise. Promise is your word and also your power. It is your ability to express yourself authentically and with clarity. These tools lead us to take action rather than to just go through the motions until you have to give up. We are all born to follow through.

Trey Tompkins is a local resident who writes fitness columns for the Record-Herald.