Why do Some People Fail to Keep Their Promises?
When you keep all of the promises you give to others, you will feel great, your sense of self-worth will increase, and your sense of being a good person will become higher.
When you keep your promises, you will experience inner peace instead of the conflicts you usually experience when you don’t keep them. When your words become more creditable than a signed paycheck, you will win everyone’s trust, you will experience the beauty of emotional integrity, and your own perception of yourself will change.
Do you think that bad people do bad things because they are bad? No, they do them because they think that they are bad people due to their distorted self-concepts. When you keep your promises, you will change your self-concept from someone who says something and does another thing to someone trustworthy.
This, in turn, will be reflected in your own behavior and your personality.
Why can’t I keep my promises?
We all fail to keep our promises sometimes, but some seem to have a problem keeping most of our promises even though they are good people. If you can’t keep your promises, then this doesn’t mean that you are bad, but it only means that you aren’t paying attention to the following items:
- Self-understanding: If you lack self-understanding, you are very likely to give hundreds of promises that you can never keep. For example, if you don’t know that working under pressure is the last thing you would want to do in life, you might promise your manager to finish all of your work in few hours, but when you start to feel pressured at the end of the day, you might fail to keep your promise.
- Can you really do it?: Some people give promises then discover later that they can’t keep them because of certain limitations in their own abilities. For example, saying that you won’t sleep until you finish work but then finding yourself sleeping on your desk. Knowing the upper limit of your abilities is very important before you can give a promise. If some people can spend 72 hours without sleeping, then its not a guarantee that you will be able to do the same (at least on that day)
- Can the task be done? : Some people give promises that can’t be done!! For example, saying that you will get the money from the bank today but then finding that the bank is closed because you gave the promise too late.
How can I keep my promises?
To keep your promises, do the following:
- When asked for a favor, see if you can really do it or not (the same goes for giving promises)
- If you found that you can’t do it, be assertive enough to refuse it
- If you have doubts, then say, “I will try, but I am not sure I will be able to do it.”
After a short while, you will know the limits of your abilities, and you will never make broken promises again.
