Keep More than You Promise

Every moment we declare who we are. Our presence, posture, and the way we move, talk, and act expresses the way we think and feel. This can also be heard from our voice—even over the phone. But most of all we are measured by our actions. Are you aware of all of these, every moment?

We consume a lot of our energy in thinking and feeling. The result can be either positive or negative. Worrying, stress, sloppiness, and absentmindedness are just part of the end results. And all of these can be factors embedded in your actions. They are the signals you sent to others—-most likely without realising it yourself.

Talking without meaning is very common nowadays. People just talk without considering what they are saying or promising. This has consequences in your environment as well. Trust can be lost only once. Similarly your credibility is decreased every time there is a discrepancy in your behaviour. We all know persons who are always late. You have learned to know how much the person is late in average, so you are not upset about it anymore. You simply re-evaluate the information according to your own judgment. Getting too far off the tolerance area means that the person might be entirely out of the game.

Postponing decision-making is easy. Unfortunately there never seems to be more time available in the future than now. Just ask from busy business executives—do they consider having more time available for them in 3 months time or even a year from now? I bet the answer is exactly the opposite. For the same reason you should take care of the issues as they emerge. Delaying enables you to pile a nice archive that needs to be sorted out but nothing else. Is it more fun to do things later than just think them over straight away and act accordingly? Often the immediate action takes almost the same amount of time than postponing. The difference is that only in the first case you have saved time for something else and also considered your actions as well. Over a period of time and practise a fast response can become a second nature. People seldom complain for being too quick to respond.

Efficiency means that you are good at what you’re doing. This means that you manage and are in control of the issues you’re dealing with. In other words you are supposed to be a professional that does not try, but simply acts. Therefore consider carefully your thoughts before speaking and carrying out your actions. By sending various signals you’re creating more chaos than clarity. Your credibility is only as good as your deeds. And if you are really engaged with your activities you do not have time to talk about doing something—just do it. Results are better than future promises. How much do you appreciate persons that only do maybe a half of what they have promised to do? Are you sure you’re not one of them?

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