3 Reasons for Keeping Your Word
What Being a Man of Your Word Does for You
While on my way in a rush for an early afternoon meeting, just leaving my college campus, my friend, Isaac stopped me “Klein please we need you to play the keyboard for our service today by 6PM”. “Can you make it? Please don’t say no”. I have had to put Isaac in this kind of situation a thousand times and I wasn’t going to say no this one time he asked. I responded, “I’ll be there”.
Let me tell you what my itinerary that day was; I had to meet with a very important client at one end of town, come back to school, go for the service and then finally leave for home at the other end of town, all in 6 hours.
However, the whole point is based on a decision I had made some months earlier. I had decided that I was going to be a man of my word. I believe if you’re going to succeed in life, then people should be able to trust what you say, your word must be your bond.
This was one of the many battles I fought to stand by my decision. That decision changed my life. It did something more to me personally. I’ll list the few I have discovered, because I’ve only just began this journey.
You learn to be vigilant and cautious of your words — A lot of us just talk with no real content and respect for our words. Words are one of the most powerful tools in life. From the bible, we were formed by words. It’s so important such that the bible equates our tongue which produces words to the rudder of a ship. That means our words direct our lives and plays a huge role in the lives of those around us. When you decide to be a man of your word, you become careful about what you say.
You become more self-aware — When you give attention to your words, you become self-conscious in a good way. Before you say something, you would have done all the calculations in your mind to be sure you can actually achieve that thing. The more you do this, the more you begin to discover patterns, rhythms, strengths, weakness and things you didn’t notice about the way you function. From this discovery, you can adjust to become better at the things you may not be too good at like punctuality and then focus on your strengths.
You build self-esteem — I have said “No” a lot of times to things I knew I couldn’t just achieve or meet-up with, because I wanted to keep to my word. You will realize that you really don’t hurt people when you say no with good reasons. As a result, your self-esteem is built. You begin to respect yourself as others respect you. Truth is, people actually give respect to those who would straight up say they can’t do stuff so they don’t disappoint. If you keep saying yes and failing at delivering tasks, people will lose respect for you words. But if you actually do what you say you would the few times you say yes, people will respect your words. It’s that simple.
In conclusion, I’ll just say this. Most times we need a motivation to begin a new habit. Find something that challenges you or something that will inspire you to become a man of your word and hold on to it. Mine was my relationship. “I’m a man of my word”. Say it out loud and tell people, especially the ones that care about you. It will keep you in check.
I hope you enjoyed this article and I hope it helps you become a better you. Do like and share with your friends, it could be help to them too. Thank you!
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