Promise to Keep Your Word…And People Will Love You For It

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Have you ever met or come across someone who says one thing and does the opposite, or makes promises that are not kept? In addition, that person never even bothers to tell you why–they just leave you hanging without any explanation whatsoever.

I am writing this post because I want to vent my feelings about one of my biggest pet peeves—people not keeping their word; not doing what they say they will do. 

Why People Don’t Keep Their Word

  • Simply “forgot” about what they promised
  • Something else came up (life happens) and could not keep the promise
  • Think that “it’s not that big a deal” if the promise is not kept
  • Simply changed their mind

What inspired me to write about the importance of keeping one’s word? I do not like it when people waste my time.  I tend to take people at their word; if you say that you are going to do something, I expect you to do it. I can waste my own time by myself; I don’t need anyone else to waste it for me. I think it is very important that people remember the importance of being reliable and trustworthy–keeping one’s word.

Here’s what happened:

I was supposed to meet a friend for an early lunch before he had to go to work. It never happened because my friend, for some reason, did not think it was important enough to notify me that we were not going to meet for lunch as planned. What makes it really bad is that it was HIS idea to meet for lunch in the first place. He finally called me (well after the time we were supposed to meet) and I asked him why we did not meet for lunch as planned. He told me that he left a voice mail message on my cell phone stating his reason why. Why he did not want to tell me right then and there I don’t know. So I indulged him by hanging up to listen to his voice mail message. The voice mail message said that he was on his way to work. As for why we did not meet for lunch, he said that he wasn’t feeling well.

I can understand that he did not want me to see him because he was not feeling well (just in case you were wondering, his illness was not life-threatening).  However, that does not justify not notifying me in a reasonable time before we were supposed to meet for lunch.

What is the lesson to be learned?

 Keep one's word 2

I’m not going to pretend that I have not been guilty of not keeping my word.  I’ve let people down by doing the very thing I hate being done to me. I make a concerted effort to do what I say I will do–I don’t make promises I can’t keep. However, once you discover that you have let someone down by not keeping your word, the first thing you should do is apologize to the other person. The worst thing you can do is not apologize and just hope that the other person will “forget” that you’ve let them down because you think it’s no big deal and/or it does not really matter.

Well that person may not tell you, but  deep down inside, it does matter. That person may be thinking “Can I trust his/her word the next time?”

Keep one's word 1

It may be possible that the other person may have forgotten about the whole thing and not feel slighted at all. Nevertheless, the sooner you apologize to the other person and make a concerted effort to keep your word the next time around, you will feel less guilty and be better off in the long run.

What are your thoughts about this? Your thoughts and/or comments would be greatly appreciated.  Have a great day, and thanks for reading my post.

Sincerely,

Deidre

PS

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  2. Are you sick and tired of being lied to by website owners or gurus who promise to give you guidance and support but fail to live up to it?

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