So often when we get compliments, we brush them off. I know that I’ve had to learn how to receive and accept acknowledgments. I was pretty uncomfortable when people gave them to me. Hearing feedback was easy, and yet hearing praise was…hard? But that’s another blog for another day.
Today I want to talk about the acknowledgment that fundamentally changed how I think about myself.
I was working for an amazing biotechnology company, and I was involved in a sales opportunity that had the potential for being a multi-million dollar deal….on a monthly basis. I always did my best to treat every single customer as if they were the most important priority to me. I really lived the mindset “nobody is too small for exceptional service”. This perspective was why I was even able to create the sales deal mentioned above.
And you can imagine, this particular opportunity had my attention. I got all the proper people involved that I would need to support this type of sale. And my manager got a nice note about me with someone who I was working with for this deal. She shared the compliment with me: “Christina is a rockstar. Her say:do ratio is 100%”.
This isn’t a post about being great at sales. It’s a post about how seeing ourselves through the lens of other people can be a really useful tool.
In that moment, I saw the truth of that statement. I do what I say I’m going to do. It’s 90% of the reason I’ve been successful anywhere I go, or with anything that I do. Keeping promises to ourselves is the foundation to this.
Everything in my world shifted when I realized the power of keeping commitments to ourselves and to other people. Steve Hardison refers to this as “BMW” or BE MY WORD.
Most people confuse an intention with a commitment. They use the words interchangeably.
But language matters. These two words are vastly different.
You don’t have to do everything. But you need to DO whatever it is you commit to doing.
This should also make us think twice before committing to something. Commitments are used so casually today, they’re tossed around willy-nilly.
My invitation to you is to spend a week looking at how often your commitments are kept, versus how often you don’t do what you say you’re going to do.
It can be pretty eye-opening to evaluate this, and then do a commitment cleanse. Stop making commitments unless they’re commitments.
I recommend that you don’t water down the power of your own word. Because it’s all you really have.
Intentions are great, and often times they are not kept or acted upon. If I had the intention to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, I’d still be at a desk job.
I actually hiked the Pacific Crest Trail when I made a COMMITMENT to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Then it was completed.
Commitments are powerful and the only way to know if something is a commitment, is if it is kept. It is actioned.
There’s no fuzziness.
No uncertainty.
It either is, or it isn’t.
No in-between.
Cheers to commitments and increasing your say:do ratio.
Much love,
Christina