Stop Making Empty Promises

                As we close out 2018 a lot of people are starting to make their resolutions for the new year. Personally, I do not make resolutions. I rather make goals throughout the year and work to continually update or achieve those goals. If anyone is going to make a change in the new year. Start by standing behind what you say. Say what you mean. Or simply talk less, which I know for some will be difficult. This is one step in life that can make your world easier and even better for those around you.

                Empty promises simply mean, you say something that will never come to light, or you have no intentions of following through on. Some of the most common ones are, “I’ll call you later”, “See you soon” and “I don’t need to write it down, I’ll remember.” Now some of these appear to be pleasantries and harmless. Many people would say it’s not an appropriate response. Instead we should say less or mean what we say. I know that is a shocker coming from me. It would mean more to say less and mean those words than to keep talking. Another angle on all this, if you are going to say I’ll call you later, call that person later.

                This time of year, people are constantly making empty promises in the form of New Year’s Resolutions. There is a long history of resolutions going back 4000 years to Babylonian Times. The tradition evolved over time and now we have people making promises that roughly 80% won’t keep in the new year. What if we starting by making resolutions that we want to keep? What if we stopped looking at these as resolutions and approach them as goals?

                The first step is to make your goals realistic. There should be short term, mid-range, and long-term goals. There are steps you must to take with all these to make them happen throughout the year. Next write down your resolutions/goals. You need to prioritize what you want to accomplish and put a timeline to it for better results. Share your goals with others and have your friends help hold you accountable. These are all very easy do

able steps in accomplishing

                Some people will be successful in their goals and others will fail. It is okay to fail in your goals. It should give you a chance to reorganize and try again. It should not be about failing and just giving up. The path to success in life is not a straight path that has no curves. It is a crooked road with pitfalls along the way. When we start to make empty promises in life, we are setting up a pattern to allow failures in other areas go unchecked. We are setting the standard to say, if we don’t do it, it will be okay, no harm no foul. This is where the argument falls apart for me. Here is why.

                When we fail to follow through on a promise, it can potentially hurt, not only ourselves, but others around us. There are times when people count on that interaction or for us to follow through on our plans. Following through on your actions in life can be one of the biggest actions we do in this world. Statistics show that 80% of the people that set resolutions fail. Instead of making a bunch of resolutions make 1 change in your life. If you have people that are toxic in your life. Take 1 of those toxic people and remove them from your world. If you have a problem with drinking, start removing alcohol from your life. If you are spending too much time on social media, start by turning off your notifications. There are small steps we can take to start achieving our goals. We all need to make a conscience effort to make the changes stick.

                People need to be more realistic in their life. They need to start admitting their weaknesses. Once we know where we are failing, we can start building to where we are succeeding. The road to be a success is not overnight. It can take more than 1 year. Most of the time it will take multiple years. Before you can do any of this and get anywhere in your new year. Stop making empty promises. Stop making them to yourself and especially stop making them to others around you. Start focusing on small steps that can lead to big changes. Everyone has it in them to be a better person and make positive changes in their life. The question is, will you stop making empty promises?

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties." ~Helen Keller