Promises, promises, promises

I try not to comment on political matters on this blog. The topic does not really interest me all that much, and politics is not what this blog is all about. Many other blogs cover the topic far better than I could ever achieve, and many more cover it far worse than I could ever imagine.

Why write about it now? Last weekend the Prime Minister of Australia announced that he was calling a Federal Election to be held on November 24th. So now the false election campaign we’ve been assaulted with over the last six months has been replaced by the real thing. Promises are flying everywhere. Each party tries to outdo the others in the generosity, attractiveness and appropriateness of their promises. Those hopefuls who are attempting to be elected for the first time are especially full of dreams and hopes and promises.

In fact you could say that politics is a very promising career.

The problem with promises is that they are generally fairly worthless. Anyone can make a promise. We all do. We all make promises willy-nilly, often not pausing to think about what we are promising.

The true value of a promise is whether or not we keep it. People who actually carry through and keep a promise are getting as rare as quality television programmes. A person who actually keeps a promise gets my vote every time. A person who follows through, who works hard at achieving the stated promise and who is true to their word is someone to admire and be thankful for. This applies not only to politicians; it applies to everyone.

Promises and writing

What has all this to do with writing?

Have you ever set some firm goals with your writing? Have you written down these goals and said to yourself: “I’m going to do this and this and that?” That kind of statement is like making a promise to yourself. Did you keep that promise? Did you work hard at fulfilling that promise? Or did you let yourself down?

If I do not keep a promise I have made to another person, I not only let them down, I let myself down as well. I damage their trust in me and that is so hard to repair. In some circumstances the broken trust cannot be repaired.

Politicians are expected to make promises. Many people expect that many of those promises will not be kept. Normal people, however, expect you to strive hard to keep your promises. Perhaps we should try even harder to keep the promises we make to ourselves.

I hope you fulfill a promising career in writing.

“People don’t always keep their promises: that’s what makes people who do keep them so special.” Ashleigh Brilliant.

Good writing.