Jayson said he would call me when he arrived in Miami. I was expecting him around noon yesterday, but when I didn’t hear from him, I imagined his flight was delayed. We had dinner plans for that evening, and when I finally called him around 4 pm, all he had was one excuse after another.
Nicole, my old assistant, told me that she would follow through on a project and couldn’t get it done.
Is there someone you know who told you they would get something important finished by a particular time and then didn’t?
Why does this happen?
If you’re a person who doesn’t do what you say you’ll do, what’s behind this behavior? Keeping your word is more important than you would imagine. I’m sure all of us at some point have said we’d do something and then didn’t. This isn’t only breaking your word, it’s a break in your integrity, trust, respect, self-worth and personal power.
“People with good intentions make promises. But people with good character keep them.”- Anonymous
* Integrity is a pledge that samurai warriors took. They followed bushido, a code for gracious living from justice to respect. The samurai were expected to find a balance between warrior-hood and cultural activities. The first seven virtues are loyalty, honor, respect, courage, honesty, compassion and justice. These seven virtues lead to the eighth virtue – wisdom: life’s greatest gift.
*Trust and Reliability: When someone lets you down a number of times, you know they are not reliable. This limits one’s desire to spend time with that person. You cannot trust them to follow through on what they say they are going to do. Unfortunately, they can no longer be trusted.
* Self-Worth: The dictionary defines self-worth as “the sense of one’s own value or worth as a person.” If you’re breaking your word to yourself or others, chances are your self-worth is in the gutter and your word means nothing to you. Therefore, it will mean nothing to others.
*Respect is a positive feeling or action shown toward someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. It’s also the process of honoring someone by exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for their needs or feelings. When you break your word, you lose respect of others. If you want to feel respected by others, then you need to say yes when you mean yes and no when you mean no.
*Personal power is the inner strength you have when you really need it. You may not even know you have it until needed.
Personal Power/ Inner Strength is
- Knowing who you are.
- Being comfortable with yourself.
- Knowing what is right and wrong (a personal Code of Ethics).
- Being honest and trustworthy.
- Living your life from a place of integrity.
- Being comfortable with your choices.
- Knowing what you want and being at ease with finding your way forward.
- Knowing your weaknesses and your strengths.
- Taking responsibility.
- Being dependable.
When we say we’re going to do something for ourselves – like walk every day, give up drinking, stop smoking or stop over-eating, and we fail to keep these promises over and over again – we break our own integrity. Our own true nature wants to keep us honest, so the brain will start cutting off certain functions to save our integrity and keep us honest.
For example, if you say you’re going to go for a walk and you never seem to make time for it – over and over again – sooner or later your brain will shut off a few switches, so you can’t walk just to keep yourself honest.
We’ve all made promises that are hard to keep. This doesn’t mean we should stop making them. It just means we should be careful about the promises we make.
I wish you the best in your health, wealth and happiness.
Dr. Wu Dhi
When one starts a practice of meditation, exercise or gives up a bad habit, it takes around 90 days before the body and mind come together and makes your new discipline a habit that will last. One of the simple and powerful programs I offer is called the yin set which you can get here:
http://rechargingqigong.com/products/yin-set/
This is an easy set that will balance the internal organs. Practice for three months, and you’ll see a remarkable difference in your mental and physical health and wellbeing.
