VIR-II-0056
“I told my dad I'd call every week and this time I actually did.”
It's the small promise that's easiest to let slide — weeks pass, life fills up, the call doesn't happen. This time you kept it, week after week, because a small word is still a word. The promises that build a relationship are usually the small, repeated ones. You showed up on the phone, and that consistency is a kind of love.
Your Practice
- Notice that the small kept promise built more than a grand one would have.
- Put the call on the calendar so your word doesn't depend on memory or mood.
- Let him feel that he can count on it. Reliability is the gift.
- Treat the small promises with the same weight as the big ones.
The Architects
“Perform without fail what you resolve.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin