Mean It When You Say?It
Azeez Idris
Data Scientist Intern @ Microsoft | Previously Interned at IBM, Syngenta, Goldman Sachs, FlexiSAF
More than anything, you are what you say and do. The most important way to be what you say is to never say anything at all but that would mean you are dead. But as far as you are alive, you would have to say some things to people and people would only regard you as important as how you mean what you say.
People make and break a lot of promises and never feel any remorse about it. Well, it's no big deal, I would make it up the next time. But well that is easy to say especially if you are the person who is at fault. We find it easy to break every piece of the promise we have made and would have no remorse in doing it again or even be contrite for a few seconds.
But take a few seconds and imagine yourself in the other person’s shoes. The other person has made their plans because of what you said and all of a sudden, you simply do not meet your own end of the bargain. How then would you feel? In some cases, it is way beyond our power to control how events go and sometimes they just happen. Well, most people would understand when you explain before hand why you might not be able to make it.
But without any prior notice, you simply fail to meet up on your end and feel like the other person should simply forgive and forget. Well, we are humans and one other thing is that we are emotional. We remember events especially those that shatter our emotional hopes on something.
So make a decision today to make as few promises as possible. Never promise more than you can accomplish. Start small and when you know that you might not be able to meet up with some expectations, kindly respond before time so that the other person can make other plans so that you do not undermine their efforts because they depended on you.
A lot of us are definitely guilty of not holding up to our end of the bargain but it is not too late to begin fixing the few ones we can. That does not mean going around and telling everyone no to every thing they ask you. What I am saying is try to always explain why you might not be available for some events or actions rather than promising and never showing up.