The Nature of Broken Promises: Why We Fail to Keep Our Word

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Greetings once again to my regular and new readers of this blog. Today's topic is a broken promise.

The truth is that in the world, as human beings, we will encounter people who break their promises.

I say it's a part of human nature. It can often be due to a person's lack of maturity, who hasn't been educated in ethical principles, and breaks the promise. Or in other cases, the person simply believes they'll be able to keep or fulfill that promise.

And it turns out that he doesn't have the strength or the ability to fulfill that commitment, to keep his promises. I have broken promises I've made to someone. It's happened to me on occasion, in fact, several times, so many times that I've forgotten them.

I remember when I was very young—well, I was a kid—my mom would tell me not to eat or take certain foods out of the fridge. And I promised my mom I wouldn't do it. The temptation was stronger than anything else, and I would end up breaking my promise.

Because I would go straight to the fridge when she wasn't looking and grab that piece of cake or that candy I'd promised not to eat and enjoy it.

I remember that I broke those promises about not eating the candy she made simply because the temptation and desire to try that delicious candy waiting for me in the fridge was greater than my willpower to keep that promise.

I was a child, I admit it, and for me that was justified because I really wanted to eat that candy.

Of course, as a child, I was seeing it from that immature perspective and not as something that could really affect my mom. Because my mom really felt bad when I ate that sweet treat she had prepared for sale.

It was a pancake she had made to sell to the neighbor, whom the neighbor had asked for it, and it was an order for a purchase she had already committed to.

I didn't know she had promised to make that candy for the neighbor. She had simply told me not to eat it from the fridge. I promised her I wouldn't, and I didn't know it was for the neighbor, and I ended up eating it.

And I got my mom into trouble because the neighbor had ordered that candy from her and paid her in advance.

And my mom was waiting for him until she came to pick him up, which she would pick up in a few hours after she got to work. And of course, this put my mom in a difficult position because she had to apologize to the neighbor and tell her she was going to do it the next day. And this was very uncomfortable for her.

I've broken promises, and I've had promises broken to me. In my case, I've lent money to someone, and that person has promised to pay me back on a certain date, in two weeks, for example. I've lent someone $50 worth of money.

And that person, after a while, two weeks went by, and the person didn't really call me, didn't pay me, didn't say anything. In fact, they were trying to hide, to avoid paying me that money. And what bothered me wasn't so much that they didn't pay me, but that they didn't contact me and said, "Damn, look, I have this problem, or I won't be able to pay you yet, I'll pay you a week later or later."

Well, until I finally contacted that person and asked him why he hadn't paid me, what was going on. And he told me that he had actually had to make some emergency repairs to his house because he had a water leak in the showers and bathroom faucets. And that he spent the money he had to pay me on the repairs. So, he broke his promise in this case because of an emergency, a need he had, and then he delayed paying me, but he managed to pay me.

But I think that was a valid reason to break the promise. Ultimately, we're human beings, and human beings will always believe they have the ability to fulfill something, and it's very likely they might not keep that promise, that they might be unfaithful to what they promised. I think the best way to avoid breaking a promise is to not make it.

Thanks for visiting me.

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