One of the most important things that you can be taught in life is to follow through on your word. When you do this you bring stability, trust and honor to the table. This is the first of many steps in showing someone that you respect them and hold value to that relationship; they are important to you.
When you fall short, the message that you are sending is that either it was not important enough for you or that you do not care about their needs and they are not important to you. Otherwise, why would you not follow through on your word? Something that might not be important to you or frivolous in nature, might not be weighted in the same regard for the other person. Sometimes it’s not about your needs, but about the other person’s expectation being met. This can be true in all aspects of your life. People need to be able to feel that they can count on you and you will be there for them.
It is the little things like not following through that can crack the foundation of a relationship or a job.
Bundledpanties's Weblog 
Great post. If you don’t have your word, you have nothing. There would be no need for attorney’s. It is time for the nation to get back to the basics of trust and honesty.
For some people, all they have is their word! I completely agree, it is time for everyone to just get back to the basics and to also teach our future these basics… starting in the home.
Kudos, its not just until its less convenient for you to keep your word.
It is very important to keep your word! Think about how different things would be if more people did that!
I think you have some good points. Do you think it could be Generational? Do you think society has digressed from our traditional foundation?
I think that when it comes to following through with your word, that Respect is key to all people and apart of everyone’s foundation. People that follow through on their word see a return in it for them or do not want to let the other down, they respect and/or care about that person’s feelings and how that person perceives them.
I do not believe that it is a digression or generational at all, I have many students that come from broken homes and when they say that they will do something, they will. They have learned the hard way what it is like to be let down and do not want to do that to someone else. They do not want to pass on that pain. What I have learned is that following through on your word is an individual attribute, which can be connected to selfishness. Someone that is selfish is not going to care how they are letting the other down or that they made a commitment that is now broken, they don’t care about the emotions of the other individual. This has nothing to do with society or a generation, it has to do with one person’s inability to see past their own wants and desires to see how it can affect another person, possibly hurting their feelings and damaging that relationship.
I agree keeping your word is something very important to me. If I say I’m going to be at an event I better be there.
Yep, it is especially important as a leader or for your business to do what you say you are going to do… people will remember when you did not follow through with your word. You can do a phenomenal job but that one screw up could really cost you a lot. People remember when they have been let down.
This is really a timely post. My father and I were discussing this issue online. He grew up on a farm. He remembers when farming arrangements were made when two neighbours met on the road and rolled down their car / truck windows. Nowadays, some of the neighbouring properties are run by huge corporations. The days of a person’s word or a person’s handshake to seal an arrangement are long gone. Since he has retired to the farm on a full time basis from his ‘city’ work, he has had to go see lawyers and sign stuff. What was once a simple arrangement now involves lawyers and paper work. It is just more complicated and expensive. There was a time – and I remember this being on the farm – that a person’s word was simply good enough. As you said in your article, it was their bond.
The other thing that is annoying is the excuse people make when they break their word. The rationale is “why be bothered by the small stuff?”. It makes me wonder what distinguishes ‘small stuff’ from ‘big stuff’. For me, if I cannot count on someone for the ‘small stuff’, then it is foolhardy to expect a change in behaviour when things are sufficiently important. It is incumbent upon me to lower my expectation because past behaviour says that, for that person, words and actions are sometimes incongruent.
Catherine