Micro Class - How's Your Promise-Keeping Ratio?
17 Dec 2025 · 0 min
Brian Johnson on keeping your word: make promises only when you mean them, then actually keep them. Aim for a 1:1 ratio of promises made to promises kept. Norman Vincent Peale said to act on them immediately.
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Hey guys, what's up? This is Brian with another optimal living 101. This one's another quick one. How's your promise keeping ratio? This is a big idea pulled from a great book in the Philosopher's Note on that great book today we are rich by Tim Sanders, he tells us this. He says, of all the values Billy holds, integrity is tops. That's all you've got in the end. She told me once she's right too. If you don't respect yourself, you cannot maintain your confidence. Regardless of how well you follow all the other principles in this book, nothing will inform you as a person more than your actions, specifically your promise keeping ratio during your life. It defines you as either a truth teller or a liar. Now, promise keeping ratios question for you today is do you make a lot of promises and commitments that you don't follow through on? If so, you have a bad promise keeping ratio. We want to get that as close to one to one as we can. You make a promise, you follow through on it. Here are some thoughts on this. Stephen Covey tells us the commitments we make to ourselves and to others and our integrity to those commitments is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity, which is habit number one of his seven habits of Highly Effective People. So the commitments we make, the promises we make, are we in integrity with them? Incredibly important. I just love this idea. Norman Vincent Peale tells us promises are like crying babies in a theater. They should be carried out at once. So let's make it a game. Let's see how fast we can follow through on our promises. And let's notice when we make a commitment. A lot of times I know I did this in the past and still do it more than I like. You kind of make a flippant commitment of oh yeah, I'll do that. I'll send you an email about this or I'll follow up or I'll introduce you to this person or whatever it is you're saying you're going to do. Notice when you make those commitments and get really, really clear and start only making those commitments when you are absolutely 100% committed to following through on it. Otherwise say I'm not so sure I might be able to do this for you. But get really clear when you make the commitment. See how fast you can follow through on that promise. Make it a game, just make it fun and get your promise keeping ratio high as you can. There you go. Get on that another way to build our integrity, honoring our commitments. Hope you enjoyed. Have another great day.
See ya. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson me. Two basic things one our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome and 2 our optimal living Membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my Optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, etc. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.
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