How often do you break your commitments?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"article":"One of the things that has taken me a long time to accept in this business (and is really probably true of every service business) is that when people sign up to come in for an intro class, only 50% will actually show up.\u00a0 When I started in this business, we used to have a separate time when intro's came in. We very quickly realized that was not the way to go, as quite often even with multiple people scheduled at one time, none of the people would show up and I found myself wasting a lot of my personal time.\u00a0 I do my best to respect people's time because it is the one resource we have that is completely non-renewable.\u00a0 It really, really bothered me\u00a0 (or I should say, BOTHERS me) when people treat my time like it doesn't matter and is something THEY could care less about.\r\n\r\nYears ago when we were buying a vehicle, I called 4 dealerships to go look at vehicles that day.\u00a0 After talking with my wife, I realized that none of the vehicles that the dealers were going to show us had a certain feature that we wanted.\u00a0 The easy thing for ME would have been to just not show up.\u00a0 But given that the dealers pretty much all said they would move the vehicles up to the building for us, it was very disrespectful of their time for me to just not show up.\u00a0 So I got back on the phone and called all the dealerships and told them I made a mistake and would not be in to look at the vehicles, so if they hadn't moved them yet, they didn't need to worry about it.\u00a0 I don't know, it just seems like common courtesy to do that.\r\n\r\nIn the past, it seems to me that people were better at keeping commitments, and I think it all revolves around cell phones.\u00a0 When I was a kid and plans were made to meet somewhere....YOU GOT THERE!\u00a0 You knew if you didn't there was no easy way to contact those that you were meeting, and you knew you were going to be leaving them hanging and wondering. Keeping a schedule and keeping appointments was vitally important.\u00a0 Now, however, that pressure is reduced because with the click of a button you can contact anyone, anywhere, at any time.\r\n\r\nThis may be a harsh statement to make, but it has started to make liars out of us all.\u00a0 Think about it, it really is what is going on.\u00a0 If you say you are going to be somewhere and don't show up and don't make the smallest of efforts by clicking that button to let someone know you aren't going to be there....you lied!\u00a0 Maybe I should be thankful in this business that that very fact is the first filter removing people that I personally probably wouldn't want to be around.\u00a0 But I'm going to turn the tables on you now.\u00a0 It's very easy to get upset when other people lie to you, but do you get as upset when YOU lie to yourself?\u00a0 And I bet most of you do lie to yourself before you even get out of bed.\u00a0 I hate to admit it, but I fall in this categroy.\r\n\r\nMost of us use an alarm clock to get up in the morning.\u00a0 When we go to bed we set a time and say THAT is when we are getting up.\u00a0 Then, when that alarm clock goes off, most of us will hit that snooze button, right?\u00a0 Well, congratulations, you just started your day with your very first action being a lie.\u00a0 You DIDN'T get up when you told yourself you would.\u00a0 Now, will the world come to an end?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Will anyone really care?\u00a0 Maybe your spouse if that buzzer keeps going off.\u00a0 But REALLY think deeply about what just happened.\u00a0 You are personally OK with starting your day off lying to yourself.\u00a0 Now, if you start your day off like that, isn't it much easier to lie to yourself later on in the day?\u00a0 And if you lie to yourself later in the day, isn't it easier to lie to other people as well?\u00a0 It's\u00a0 amazing how quick we are to hold other people accountable when they lie, but think very little about holding ourselves accountable when we lie to ourselves.\r\n\r\nSo, I throw out this challenge now: hold yourself accountable to even the tiniest of lies that you commit during the day.\u00a0 \"I'll call you at 5:30\" and you don't call until 5:35?\u00a0 Sorry, you lied.\u00a0 \"I'll call you sometime between 5:30 and 6:00\" and you call at 5:35, NOW we're talking!\u00a0 Even the Bible spells it out in Luke 16:10:\u00a0 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.\u00a0 Train yourself in small matters, because it will lead to those same behaviors in big matters.","featured_image":"","featured_image_id":"","featured_article":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-307","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n