Keeping Promises and Commitments

Keeping promises is the foundation of all achievement. You did what you said you will do. When you get to the point where you make a promise and keep it, you are a winner. Most people labor under the illusion that we can break promises we make to others and keep those we make to ourselves. That is not true. A promise is a promise, whether you make it to others or yourself.

This is where we routinely shoot ourselves in the foot, and I am a chief culprit. I am still learning the fine art of underpromising and over-delivering. In the bid to please others, I make a promise I find difficult to keep. It has everything to do with integrity – oneness; when your words and actions go together. You say what you mean and you mean what you say. When you make a promise, it is as good as done.

Trying to keep promises in old age after living a life of broken promises will not happen overnight. It requires a paradigm shift and falling in love afresh with the word NO. We have to think thrice before we undertake new tasks. We need to be able to discern between urgent and important. We need to start focusing on what is important and delegate other tasks. We need to cut ourselves some slack and start overestimating the time it will take to accomplish a task rather than give an optimistic estimate and deliver late. We need to make promises we can keep.

When you routinely break promises, your subconscious mind no longer believes you when you set goals. Any time you set a new goal, deep down you know that you will not follow through. Your subconscious mind tells you:

“Na!, you got to be kidding me!
Is it not the same as you?
Since when did you start keeping promises?
Get real, just forget it and get on with your sad life!”

Sounds familiar? You set goals, and make New Year resolutions, but deep down there is a sinking feeling…it will go the same way as the others. These internal conflicts sap you of vital energy badly needed to create momentum and move towards your goals. This lowers your belief in yourself and your ability to achieve your goals and dreams. You conclude that it is not possible for you, despite the fact that you watch others who are not better than you achieve even more.

When you create a habit of not keeping promises, every goal you set becomes a maybe. Deep inside, you do not believe in your ability to follow through with your promises and commitments. Since your subconscious mind does not take you seriously, it will not mobilize the needed resources needed to achieve that goal, knowing full well there will always be excuses at the end of the day to explain away the lack of will to pay the full price.

You need all your resources focused in one direction to achieve your goals. If your mind says yes, your body says maybe and your subconscious mind says you must be joking, then you are a divided house, and whatever effort the body makes to get started soon fizzles out. Your trail of abandoned projects and goals reinforces the belief your subconscious has that you are not to be taken seriously. A battle is won in the General’s tent. If the war council ends in an argument, the battle has been lost before a shot is fired. When your whole being is not in one accord, you will not go very far.

I remember a story my Dad often told me when I was growing up. A young boy went to a farm in the village during planting season to help his aged grandfather who was too old to go to the farm. One day, he raised an alarm calling for help because a lion was approaching his farm. All nearby hunters and warriors rushed to the scene ready to shoot only to meet an amused boy.

When he was asked to point to where the lion was approaching from, he told them he was joking – he wanted to test and see if help would come if he was indeed in trouble. He was warned never to pull that stunt again. He did it again the next day. The hunters and warriors were angrier. The boy tried to explain that he needed to be sure that they would actually respond after yesterday’s incident. They went back. A few days later, a real lion attacked the boy. The boy shouted, screamed, and hollered all he could. The hunters and warriors heard him alright, but they did not lift a finger. They thought it was yet another prank. They did not take him seriously anymore.

That is what happens when we don’t keep our promises. Our subconscious mind thinks it is business as usual, another promise made to be broken. We roll out our goals with fanfare, buy new equipment, get all excited, and launch out while our subconscious mind yawns and goes back to sleep waiting for the inevitable to occur – another failed project.

We need to go back to the basics and rebuild confidence in ourselves to make promises and keep them. Make small promises or commitments and keep them. Make slightly larger ones and keep them. Clean out your unfinished business portfolio and have a fresh start. When you rebuild your integrity and character as a promise keeper, your self-confidence and esteem soar and your word has weight. Your word becomes as good as money in the bank.

The moment you say it, everyone considers it done, including yourself because you have built a track record of keeping promises and commitments. Everyone starts to take you seriously, including yourself, when you make promises. When you sit down to write your goals, it becomes a powerful and awesome moment, as each will surely come to pass, because you put your money where your mouth is. When we get to this place, living our dreams is only a matter of time.

I have made up my mind that 2012 is my year of keeping promises. I will start with promises I have broken, promises I made to others and myself. I will kiss procrastination goodbye. I will stop biting more than I can chew. If my hands are full, I will tell you NO, not now. Get someone else to do it. I will keep old promises before I make new ones.

All goals and dreams are actually promises, promises we make to ourselves that we will pay the full price to accomplish them. When we become promise keepers, then our goals and dreams come true the day we write them down. The manifestation is only a matter of time.

Photo: starrforce.com