The Power of Promises

To make a promise is to take a risk. Look at the areas of your life where you are not keeping your word to yourself or to others. Look at the areas of your life in which you are not maintaining integrity.

Keeping a promise creates substantial cultivation of our characters. We live our lives in a way that makes us either character killers or character builders. Therein lay the risk. Every time we make a promise, we set the stage for one of these eventualities to occur. So when we make a promise, we have to make sure that it is genuinely a promise that we are going to keep.

The motivation to do so lies in matching the promise with our values. If we don't combine promises with our values, we are not likely to live up to our promises. When that occurs, we take equity out of our personal character and over a period of time, if this behavior is repeated, we not only will stop keeping our promises, but will stop making new ones also. The great reward is in making sure that the central theme to every promise you make is value based so that your character equity increases. Every time you do what you have promised, your reward goes up.

Keeping a promise gives us continued relief of clear conscience. We need to have a clear mind always. This is so critical in living our life on purpose. Every time we keep a promise, it relieves our conscience from talking adversely. As that happens, we feel better about the way, we carried out our actions.

Keeping a promise enhances our priceless legacy. You cannot just get a legacy. You have to earn it. If your life ends today, what will others talk about you? This depends upon the legacy you created during the course of your life by doing good things to others, and keeping your word. And this guarantees that you will be remembered for long after you have departed.

Also, keeping our promise gives us the credibility of being a mentor. One of the great things about keeping your promises is that as your character develops, your power of judgment also develops. At that point of time, you go from learning to teaching and you invariably become a mentor to some one. This important responsibility can only be yours if your integrity is solid.

Ultimately, promises are the critical pivot on which one's success depends. So, looking at the perspective of life, if you have to finish strong, keep your word of promise.