As Mark Sanborn suggests, "Change this inconsistency!"

By nature we automatically think one thing and do another. See the problems in others and not in ourselves. Do those things we wish we wouldn't. We are inconsistent creatures.

There is one inconsistency that Mark Sanborn has tweeted about lately. How can you keep commitments to others if you can't keep commitments to yourself?




In my experience, this specific inconsistency shows up often in the business environment. We want to be viewed as the vendor of choice, the one who drops everything for the sake of the client. We value customer service and the goodwill and testimonial it brings.

So we get excited about the chance to work with someone new who is still eager to work with us. We pour our energies into making promises that we intend to follow through in. We get to the point that many opportunities are coming our way and all that is left is for us to follow through. That's when we hit the wall. We realize that we've put off for too long the activity we should have engaged in but instead we were caught up in the web of seeking more prospects and promising heavily. Our best intentions got caught up in a murky view of priorities.

Then the day comes when we check our schedule. We see that we had scheduled time to research, and we just hit "delete". We scheduled time to make important calls, but someone asked to see us,and since we expected opportunity to result, we once again hit "delete". We were to attend a personal event, but then we learned about an awesome networking event and scheduled that over our prior commitment.

Although I don't like to sound preachy, I have to be clear about this common habit. What is going on? The first thing to recognize is our willingness to overlook our own needs. Maybe we don't trust our decision-making or perhaps we deceive ourselves into thinking we can simply put off responsibility. The day we are victim of the flu or an accident or something else pulls the rug out from under us we realize that when we don't develop commitments to our responsibilities, something/somebody else does.

The way we follow through with others is in direct relation to the way we follow through with ourselves. Who are we kidding when we say I treat others better than I treat myself? Only ourselves.