You've probably heard people say, My word is my bond. Don't know about you but when I hear - My word is my bond it just sounds a little too easy. That's because the bond aspect can tend to become almost fluid. Keeping our word, takes more than just being honest. It involves discipline, practice, sacrifice and self respect. It takes discipline to not procrastinate. Practice enables us to introduce new habits, and sacrifice helps us to understand ourselves better. Lastly, self respect is an outcome when we adhere to these four aspects of our behaviour. Those who say they're going to do something then don't are, in my opinion, unreliable and perhaps even lazy. If like me, you believe that life is our greatest teacher, perhaps you've learned that to be the best version of you involves keeping your word and therefore being trustworthy.
By trusting ourselves we learn how to be more authentic - it's how we can accomplish taking more positive actions and make better decisions. Then, almost by osmosis we learn about who else we can trust. By truly paying attention to our intuition, we improve our judgement, decision making becomes more accurate and our self belief goes up a notch or two. At times, I become impatient with myself. It's as if all my experience, knowledge and passion overflows. Keeping a lid on it can be quite a challenge for me. In saying that, knowing there's plenty more from where it came from, is a relief. Therefore, allow yourself to give away as much as you like, knowing there's much more where that came from.
When asked to work on a project, complete a task, don't ask when completion is required. Instead, make sure you tell the team or individual when you'll have it ready. And ensure it's ready on the date promised. In fact, better still ,complete the task before it's due. That's how you'll encourage trust. In addition, that's how we remain in control. It also enables us to feel a greater sense of self empowerment. Our self esteem is key to our ability to feel/project a healthy self confidence. Most of the tools that are used to improve our lives, reside within us. We just need to believe that's the case. Then, our next task is to begin digging. We do this by asking ourselves what makes us happy, content and fulfilled. In short, having enough self belief is about liking who we are, trusting ourselves, fulfilling our purpose and endeavouring to be authentic. And of course being totally honest.
When considering how you'd like to come across, think about editing as if you were a top-notch publisher reading a new manuscript. Only leave in aspects of who you are that you know are really interesting, compelling and that enable you to shine. Take out anything that you know distracts, is negative, or in any way unhelpful to you. This means you will need to be completely honest, perhaps ruthless. And if it's uncomfortable, know that that is a good sign. It means you are discovering something important about yourself. Or perhaps something new!
Some tips:
- If you say you're going to do something, then do it
- If you are going to be late, advise the other person/people in advance
- Never make promises you can't keep
- Always deliver too early, never too late
- Our personal development is key to understanding ourselves better
- Never shy away from telling the truth