Ways to distingish yourself – #33 Keep promises you make to yourself

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 11:06 PM – 5 Comments

Many people ask me if there is one thing that they can learn quickly

that can make a significant impact on their lives. We all know that

there are no shortcuts to success. However, at the risk of “over

simplifying”, let me make a statement

Think about the above statement – many times it’s easier to keep

promises that we make to others than to keep promises that we make to

ourselves. In fact, many of the promises that we make to ourselves is

not known to anybody else. Something like “I will finish reading this

book by the end of the week” is known only to yourself. Weeks pass by

and the book is not complete yet. Nobody knows that you made a promise

to yourself and you feel a bit guilty for not keeping the promise but

you are smart enough to justify why you were not able to keep your

promise. Most often, the justifications for not keeping the promises to yourself are more compelling than the promises themselves.

On a lighter note, you can afford to NOT keep your promises to yourself

because you can’t fire yourself. If you fire yourself where will you

go?  

You can fix this – make small promises to yourself and try to keep

them. Keep doing this until it becomes a habit. It should become your

second nature to keep the promises you make for yourself. If this not

working, partner with a friend and share the promises that you make for

yourself with this friend. Ask for his help to hold you accountable for

these promises.

When was the last time you made a compelling promise to yourself and

worked hard to keep it? What if you practiced this for the next thirty

days? Would that make a difference – you bet!

Related Articles:

• Fantasy Test
• Ways to distinguish yourself #156 – Manage perceptions of you
• Managing Time vs Increasing Leverage
• Posted in the Distinguish yourself, Main Page category.
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