“Commitment is what transforms a promise into a reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions, and the actions that speak louder than words. It is making time when there is none; coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of—the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.” -Abraham Lincoln
Apply this to your #PipeBandLife: Keeping my commitments has always been of the utmost importance to me. But there is one area of my life in particular where I have always struggled when it comes to keeping a commitment, and that is when I tell my husband or my kids that I’ll be done with something I’m working on in five more minutes…then ten minutes go by…then fifteen..and the next thing I know it’s been an hour or longer and I’m still not done.
I don’t know how I can be so good at keeping my commitments in business, in church, with friends, and in all the other areas of my life…but when it comes to keeping my commitment to my husband or kids to be done at a certain time with my work…well, it has always been a struggle…
Do we tend to be more lax with our family commitments because we take for granted that they will still love us if we are a little late? Or are we more lax with family because we know they will forgive us when we don’t? I don’t know why we do it, but I know its wrong for us to treat our families with any less respect than we would a business partner or a church leader or a friend…truth is we should treat them with the most care and respect of anyone because they are the people who matter most in this world.
Today I didn’t do so great at keeping my commitment to my husband to be done at a certain time with work and I felt horrible about it. As I hurried to finish up tonight it really hit me how important it is that we keep every commitment we make to our spouse and kids, even when it may seem insignificant (such as saying it will only take us five minutes to be done working when its really going to take ten).
They need to see they can count on our word to be our bond on the small things so they can have peace of mind to know they’ll never have to worry about us keeping our word on the big things.
Have a great day everyone!
~Amy Rees Anderson (author of “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )