That’s because reality never makes a promise.

Reality is too fickle to make a promise. We don’t seem to recognize that. We are like Charlie Brown trusting Lucy to once and for all hold the football in place this time.

Reminds me of a story my colorful grandfather told me at a tender age . . .

A drunk gets on a bus and sits down next to a priest. The priest buries his head in his newspaper to avoid this man. The drunk says, “Father, I was at your church this morning.” The priest continues to ignore him. “I saw a lady with crutches come up and say a prayer to the statue of St. Michael and then she threw one crutch away.” The priest then glanced his way. “Then the poor dear went over to the statue of the Blessed Mother, said another prayer and threw the other crutch away.” He now had the priest’s full attention and the priest asked, “Then what happened?” The drunk replied, “She fell on her ass.”

Promises made yesterday often don’t make it to today, and tomorrow makes promises it can’t keep. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring, nor does tomorrow. If we rely on the promise of tomorrow, we’ll wind up like Charlie Brown or the lady in church.

The only time you can truly rely on is right now. Right now is reality. Right now is not the time to make promises but rather to take actions that hold promise. There is a big difference between the two.

Promises, by and large, are magical thinking. “If you buy me a dog, I promise I’ll walk it every day.” “Read my lips, no new taxes.” “I promise to love, honor and obey.”

If we substitute promises for action, we bankrupt our future.

The reality is this: The only place action can take place is right now. We too often promise future action and wind up with a check we can’t cash.

Right now is always the time to take action but we delay that action by making promises.

Here’s an action you can take right now: Stop making promises. They get in the way of reality.

Action is reality - not the promise of reality. Make your action your bond, not your word.

What action you take is always reality; what you promise is way too often a delaying tactic that doesn’t deliver.

Doing is action you can trust; promising will bring your trust into question.

You have to do more than promise that you won’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. You actually have to take action now in order to have a prayer at a promising future.

 

All the best,

John