In this motivational talk, Matthew Hussey emphasizes that a person’s word is their most valuable asset, forming the foundation of trust and credibility in relationships. He argues that consistently keeping even small promises signals reliability, which in turn makes others more likely to trust you with larger commitments. Hussey highlights the importance of learning to say “no” when a request is unrealistic, explaining that honest refusals earn respect and prevent the erosion of credibility caused by overpromising. He outlines how to assess whether a commitment is feasible—considering one’s skills, resources, and timeline—and encourages listeners to practice honoring their word daily. By building a track record of fulfilled promises, individuals can strengthen their personal and professional relationships, ultimately improving their overall life outcomes.
Chapters
Matthew Hussey here with Love Life. Your word is the most important thing you have. It's the thing that builds trust in relationships. It's the thing that makes you seem credible. It's the thing that makes people believe you the next time you say something. Keeping to your word is what makes people value what we say. It's actually one of the most attractive qualities I believe anyone can have. is the ability to do what they say they're going to do. And too many of us don't. And I include myself in this. Too many of us spend too much of our lives making promises we can't keep, telling people little things that we're going to do that we never follow through on. And if you think that it doesn't matter because it's the little things, I'll tell you, the little things are the only things that matter. Because when someone realizes that you act on the little things, they start to trust you on the big things too. Too many of us treat our word too lightly. And when we don't deliver on something, we kind of brush it off as a casual, oh my God, I'm so sorry I was so busy and that slipped through the net and oh God, you know, let me get you that now. And that's okay. Like as I said, I'm the same as everybody in this respect. I'm certainly not coming from a position of superiority here. I do this every single week and it's something that I'm working on for myself and that's why I wanted to share it with you today. because I really want to, I want my word to be my bond. And I'm working on my word being my bond. I'm working on being more realistic with what I tell people I can and can't do, but delivering on the things that I say I can do. Because I know that A, no is a word people don't always like, but they respect it. When you say you can't do something, it actually engenders respect. for you because people suddenly realize that you don't just say yes to things without thinking about it. When you say yes to something, it's because you've actually decided that, yes, I can do this. Not enough people do that. So when you start saying no to people, the moment you say yes to that same person, they'll go, oh, they mean it. Because I know when I asked them for something before and they said no, they meant that, too. We have to get good at saying no. and we have to get good at really assessing whether it's realistic for us to say yes. Is it realistic in terms of our capabilities? Is it realistic in terms of our timeline and how long we've given ourselves for a task? You know, one of the quickest ways to lose credibility is someone says, can you do this? And you say yes, but you have no ability to do it. And then when they ask you again a week from now, have you done it? And you realize you haven't done it because you haven't even got the skills or the ability or the experience or the contacts or whatever it is to be able to do it. in other words, you haven't got the resources and you say, no, I haven't. They learn that you're someone who makes promises that they absolutely cannot deliver on. So the next time you try and actually make a promise to them because you need something, that person will take your word much more lightly. It is so easy to lose credibility in somebody's eyes and it's much more difficult to build it back up again. Reverse of that. if you just keep to little promises, your credibility will build. And when you need something big from somebody, you'll actually have the credibility in the bank saved up for them to want to believe you and say yes to it. You know, we take these things so lightly and we shouldn't because our word is our bond. Now, you're not going to solve this all at once. You're still going to say some things that you can't do. You're still going to overestimate how much time you have. But is something for us all to work on. Could you work this week on honoring more of the things that you say you're gonna do for people so that you build up the credibility, the trust, and the respect that other people have for you and what you say you'll do in life. If you do that, I promise you the world and your life will change because people will wanna help you and they'll wanna be there for you too. This has been Love Life. I'm Matthew Hussey. Come follow me on Facebook. It's facebook.com/CoachMatthewHussey. And if you haven't visited my website in a while, we have new blogs on there all the time, new blogs from my brother Stephen, who's writing a new blog every week, a written piece, and also videos from me on YouTube. We have them embedded there on the site so you can go and watch all of our latest videos. That is howtogettheguy.com. go there now, check out the site. I know you're gonna love it. And remember to come back for the next episode of love life.
