Today I like to talk about Promises…. Promises, What are  they? Why are they being made? And why are they too often not keept….

Here’s what wikipedia sais about  a Promise:

A promise is a transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.

So much for me quoting wiki,  But wiki speaks further about types of promises aswell.

There are tons of quotations and proferbs  to find about Promises. I will mention a few here:

• When a man repeats a promise again and again, he means to fail you.  ~Proverb
• Promises make debt, and debt makes promises.  ~Dutch Proverb
• Losers make promises they often break.  Winners make commitments they always keep.  ~Denis Waitley
• Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters.  This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.  ~Napoleon Bonaparte

Why do people make promises then though when they are so often not keept at all? It can be for few reasons.

• Either they have a real bad planning and just promise more then they are capable off.
• They make a promise to try to keep peoplr happy for the moment. And never even plan to do it. Thinking it will go away on its own eventualy and people forget it. or later on another excuse is made as of why it did not happen.
• Ofcourse it is possible that people just simply forget about it but then ofcourse the promise could maybe be taken care of as as possible in some cases.

What to do if you made a promise that you can not keep? Well ofcourse if you are planning to keep you promise but  run in trouble case is to let the ppl who you made the promise to, to let them know as soon as possible that you can not keep it for the time being. perhaps what you can do is set a new goal and ofcourse you do have to make sure you will be able to keep it. Just to make your self believable next time you  promise something.

If you continiously don’t keep promises you will lose credibility, people wont trust your word as much anymore. Not Keeping promises can lead to losing friends and bussines deals. If the promise is something  that would lead to someone else losing money then I think its even worse, because you do not only not keep you word you also can bring the other person in trouble. You could say that a promise is the same as a contract, just not as official because it wasnt signed just know that when you make a promise you have to keep it. technically you could be up for a lawsuit if you dont keep a promise. Giving your word is the same as signing a contract actualy.

Think about that when you make someone a promise because you are harming people in one way or another by not keeping your promises.

Songs heard by the sun,
Danced by the butterflies,
Starting where everything begun,
Rhythm which the bees apprise.

Music carried by the night,
Loved by tears,
Filled with candlelight,
Free of fears.

Words whispered by the wind,
Bouncing on the leafs,
Caressed in a birds mind,
They are promises, of I believe’s.
Made by u and me ….

September 29th 2000 16:55 ©2001 D.S.