Deadlines. We all have them to some degree and learn to live with them. I’ve always been pretty good meeting those deadlines given to me and of course, I came to expect the same not only from colleagues, but employers as well. When someone tells you that they’ll, Get back to you in a couple of days, to me that means, two days, not two weeks (or more). When an employer tells me thst they’ll have a decision for me by the end of the week, even if it’s Thursday when they tell me, I expect that decision whwn they said.

Is this too difficult a concept to understand? This doesn’t just apply to professional life, but personal matters as well. When someone gives their word, they are making a personal promise. Making that promise is placing honor up front. Trustworthiness has always been paramount in society: Empires have risen and collapsed based simply on someones word of honor that could be spoken or on a piece of paper. So why does it seem so difficult for people to want to take a risk of being honorable anymore?

We live in a society that has become, by our own making, too fast for the best of us. Decision making is not as black and white as it used to be because with technology, the possibilities someto=imes seem to be limitless and therefore, coming to any conclusion that is not only personally adequate, but also that which would be seen as positive by the many, comes with risk and we, not only individually, but societally, have become risk adverse. We’ve made it too easy to not keep our word and since everybody does it, is the adage of our time, no one sees the downside to personal and professional dishonor. Is this really progress? In a way it is because we’ve progressed from a society where personal honor was taken seriously to where the same is viewed as an anachronism. In the long term, we all lose.