Are These The Hardest Promises To Keep?

Do you make many promises? And if so, do you keep them? To me, it is important to keep my promises, so I don’t make many.

I hate being let down and equally, I hate letting people down.

There was one person I routinely let my promises slide for. Can you guess who it was? That person was me.

Maybe you are like that too? Discounting your own needs and wants and importance.

Last week I had a tech crash and was without my computer for the week. Any week it would be annoying, but I had planned to enter a short story contest.And the deadline was Friday 13th – what could be more  apt?

I got my computer back on  Monday. It was just the basic setup, and a year’s worth of work was gone. I’d promised myself I would enter at least two stories in the contest.

I had two-thirds of one story written and a vague idea for another. The word length for submission was from 1,000 to 4,000 words.

A writer friend cast an eye over the first story. I thought I had completed it and I’d listened to it through the read-aloud function. That read aloud alone picked up fifteen tiny mistakes. My eagle-eyed friend found missing commas, redundant commas, as well as making some pertinent comments. More work! I respect her judgement, so I made the changes. I submitted it with a day to spare. It was about 3,500 words.

What about story two? I had roughed out ideas in a notebook while I was without the computer.

 

I decided to go for it. I knew my story wouldn’t have the care and attention that the first story had. But my promise to myself was to submit two stories.

I had the germ of an idea and I worked hard on it, and my wonderful friend was even able to have a quick look at it. Again I made changes.  Story Two was submitted at 6.30pm on Friday 13^th. It was just over 3,00o words.

It’s likely that neither will win a prize, many accomplished writers enter this contest. I felt wiped out, exhausted and yet exhilarated. I’d done it! I hadn’t let myself off the hook. Yes, there were difficulties, but nothing that I couldn’t overcome. It had been hard work, but I felt and feel terrific. Finally, I was giving my writing, my work. the respect that it deserved,

Is this a female thing or a generational thing? Is it the sign of a classic procrastinator?

What about you? Do you find it easy to keep the promises that you make to yourself?