Do you take your promises seriously?
By kishusia
@kishusia (1066)
India
March 21, 2008 4:10am CST
I have seen many people making promises just like that. I asked one of my friends who make such promises, whether he has made the promise after giving it a serious thought? He laughed and said, why bother, who is going to fulfill the promise? On his reply, I remembered what Roger Fisher and Scott Brown, Best Selling Authors, has said about it - "Take Promises Seriously. The more seriously we treat our own commitments the more seriously others will treat them. The easiest way to enhance our reputation for credibility is to make fewer promises. A second and somewhat more difficult step is to be scrupulous about keeping those promises we do make, even when they may seem unimportant".
My friend represents a post-independence culture in India of not honouring promises. It used to be the monopoly of Indian politicians and bureaucrats but now common people have also joined this cultural revolution. Some time back a Chief Minister, when asked why his government is not fulfilling the promises made before elections, smilingly explained that promises made before election are meant to capture votes and not to fulfill them. He added that it was not his fault if people took his promises seriously.
Friends, do you honour your promises?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@zigzagbuddha (4601)
• United States
25 Mar 08
Hahahaha! My kids and I cringe every time somebody in a film says "I promise" to anything... it's always a setup, and you know what's coming right there. I rarely make promises, I never married because I did not feel I could guarantee that I would always be able to keep any of those promises they want you to make in wedding vows.
But it was my kids that really broke me of the tendency to make frivolous, ill-thought promises, and life showed me how quickly circumstances could in one fell swoop put the lie to my shallow words. I have become more circumspect in my speech particularly as regards promises.
@zigzagbuddha (4601)
• United States
25 Mar 08
One more thing; If I do make a promise I like to see it through, unless of course I change my mind about wanting to. For example, my mother has a penchant for dragging unreasonable promises out of virtually everyone that crosses her path. Then if you don't manage to do what you promised under duress in the first place, she tries to use it as a whip on you. And its a mightily stinging whip that tongue of hers makes.
Anyway, I stopped making promises to her like that... there are no guarantees in life, probabilities maybe. But then I promised that I would finish raising the beds in her garden once I had dug it all up and traded her rider mower for 5 or 600 builder's blocks and had them piled in ungainly teetering stacks in the yard around it's parameters.
So 2 years into this back breaking promise she decides she's selling her house. So now I'm not 'inspired to action' with this physical labor by my dreams of the fat peppers, pumpkins, sunflower seeds, etc., that I can see myself planting and harvesting... now 'inspiration' has become 'motivation' and a lot of the pleasure has left town on the evening train. But I am going to keep that promise and finish it off this spring. The clover in the paths will be soft and lush under our bare feet.
