How many promises have you made in your lifetime?
Promises to yourself. Promises to your boss. Your mother. Your friends.
What if you have kept them all? How would your world be today?
How many promises do we make, both knowingly, and unknowingly. Because when you think about it… you’re not the one making promises… promises are made when people believe you.
A promise becomes a genuine promise if there is genuine BELIEF in it… for example:
A promise to yourself
You say to yourself, “I’ll go to the gym 3 times a week”. Do you believe yourself? If you don’t fully believe yourself, it’s not w very good promise is it. No belief, no promise.
It’s probably like a goal. And it’s like OK if you didn’t hit a goal, but its NOT OK to break a promise.
Promises are very different from ’setting goals’, voicing out your intent, and ‘trying your best’. Promises have a different weight and effect on those who make them, and those who believe them.
A promise to others
As a brand owner / marketer, let’s say your product says “Gives you radiant skin”. If the customer believes you, your product had better damn well live up to it, or you’ll be breaking a promise, and losing repeat customers, and failing in business.
When you look at a brand, what do you expect from it, what do you believe about a brand? The moment your product is out there, people may buy into it, and suddenly, you’re making a promise whether you like it or not.
Marketers talk about a BRAND PROMISE – and they should keep it.
Khailee’s Promise
I previously “mentioned” that I would show you my latest Halloween costume, right? And if you believe me, that’s as good as a promise.
And I will stay true to it:
So here you go. I was dressed as SERENA WILLIAMS.
World number #1 baby!
Here I am trying to be a tennis player, hitting on girls:
It was fun at first, then it got uncomfortable (for onlookers, too), as my wallet, handphone, carkeys and such was in this waist pouch underneath the front of my skirt. So I had to like, play pennis whenever I answered the phone.
Anyways, where was I. Oh, promises.
Big Promises
Just a closing thought.
There’s a lot of power in keeping our promises. Shared promises can unite nations. And shared promises kept, will be completely worth the effort put into keeping them. (Hint hint Anwar or Obama)
The last 6 months of my life has been the most intense, mostly because I’ve been focusing every working hour on keeping my promises, to my clients, to my team, and to myself. And because so many young Malaysians and brand owners believe in YOUTH’09 and YouthSays, it creates very big, shared promises, which once kept, I know will completely be worth the effort put into keeping them.
//
Promises VS Goals idea, thanks to MindValley and Bill Bartmann
“Hitting on girls” joke and the adventure thus far, thanks to Joel Neoh
The tennis skirt and racket thanks to Xinch
