.... that your body can't cash.
Anyone remember that line from Top Gun?
A modern reference that speaking too much and doing too little is a poor choice.
However, the idea of keeping ones word and not making promises you can't keep has been around for a very long time. Just look at this verse from the Bible.
Matthew 5:33-37 (NET): "Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation, 'Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not take oaths at all—not by heaven, because it is the throne of God, not by earth, because it is his footstool, and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. Do not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. Let your word be 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no.' More than this is from the evil one."
Trying to never make a promise
I have known that bible verse since I was very young and as such I've always tried to never promise anything. If you were ever to meet me in person you would probably find that I won't commit to anything. Even a solid answer when asked for an opinion.
It is kind of funny. When I was in Grade 10 I distinctly remember my yearbook caption.
The smartest kid in school......I think
I have a feeling the yearbook people were getting after me for (a) getting top marks and (b) never committing to ever having the right answer on anything.
Not making promises doesn't mean I don't go to great lengths to always be honest. If I say Yes I mean yes. If I say No I mean no. If I say Yes, I will try my best that means I'm not promising anything other than I will do my best. That's as much of a promise as you will get from me.
With one exception (that I can remember)
I can guarantee that if I tried to say "I'll do my best to love, honor, and cherish" it would have gone over poorly. It's the only time I can think of that I promised that I WILL.
Now that does make some conversations more difficult
Especially in my job as a Pharmacist.
You see one of the first things I'm asked when someone gives me a prescription is "How long will it take". The joke I often hear about Pharmacists is they say it will be 15 minutes but it took much longer. If you ask me how long it will take I doubt that I will ever tell you 15 minutes.
My typical answer.
"I'm going to try for 5 minutes. However, if the phone rings, if I get interrupted, if I need to contact the Doctor for clarification, if we have to order stock, if I run into a drug allergy or other problem, or something else comes up while I'm doing your prescription it will probably take much longer"
Or if I'm busy or a long order
"Typically 2-5minutes per medication as long as there are no issues"
Now it would be much easier for me to just say "15 minutes". I'm certain it would make me seem less arrogant and less standoffish. I really wish I could bring myself to just do that...but something inside me just says "Be honest. Don't lie".
It's a character flaw that my children take advantage of
Nobody knows you like your children. I don't think there is anyone who knows how to get under a parents skin quite like children. They know that the biggest insult you can hit me with is "Dad you lied"
I will do anything reasonably possible to keep from lying, breaking a promise, or otherwise being deceitful.
But one time things happened beyond my control
I sold a video card on Ebay
Back in the graphics card craze a couple years ago I offered a video card for sale on Ebay. Listed for sale in good faith a used Radeon 5600XT I believe. As always I tested the product. I got it nicely cleaned up. Placed the offer to sell on Ebay and then made the listing. After that I packaged it all up nicely so I could deliver it promptly as soon as I got paid.
I got an awesome bid on the video card.
There were a lot of people interested in the card but one bidder won out with a bid of over $600. I was pretty happy with that. I just needed to get paid and the card would be shipped off with tracking and insurance and would have been my 179th positive transaction on Ebay.
Except Ebay changed their payment policies.
When I made my Ebay account I was living and working in the United States. I worked there for almost 10 years but had returned to Canada 4 years before selling the video card. I dutifully told Ebay about the change of address to Canada. I told Paypal about my change of address to Canada. No problem. Sell on Ebay, get paid to Paypal, transfer money across the border between bank accounts.
However, Ebay went from using Paypal to direct deposit. Ebay would accept the money from the buyer and then deposit directly into the sellers bank account. faster and fewer fees.
The seller paid Ebay. Ebay held onto the money. They just needed me to provide my bank account number in the United States.
Except I didn't have an Amerian bank account. I live in Canada. I call support and they say they will walk me through the process of adding my account. Work with them for an hour and no success. I get bumped up to a higher level of support. I work with them for an hour and no success. They bump me to the supervisor and after 30 minutes I'm told it will have to go to back end technical support
Now the buyer is getting mad. He has paid and I haven't shipped. I'm getting unhappy emails and I'm trying to explain that I am waiting on Ebay to release payment
A few more days go by and I'm still not paid. I call Ebay again. I go through the same steps again. 3 more hours on hold with support and unable to solve the problem.
Now the buyer is getting irate and calling me nasty names, a scammer and generally everything nasty he can think of. I still haven't been paid so I show him my bank account and the payment "pending". I record my phone call and send him the audio log.
Then I try again two days later. Another 3 hours on hold and still no way to get the cash. Ebay confirms there is a problem but can't give me an ETA on when it will be fixed. I ask them to return the cash to the buyer. They can't do it...Only the seller can do the refund. I try to refund but I can't because I haven't gotten the cash and won't until I give Ebay an American bank account number.
Ebay support does make the helpful suggestion...just come to the USA and open a bank account. I don't think they realize that's not a really good solution
In the end they told me that if I don't accept payment within 30 days the money will automatically be returned to the buyer, I will get a strike against my name for failing to honor the contract, and I will get my first negative review. All because their technical support can't solve an issue with payment.
Years without a resolution
A month after the problem started the buyer did get his money back. I did get a strike against my name. I did get negative feedback. I felt better that the buyer got his cash back but still called Ebay support to try and fix the problem.
3+ hours with support. No fix.
3 months later I hoped they would have updated their system but no. Another few hours on tech support without resolution.
1 year later I received an reminder email that my account would be suspended if I didn't register a bank account with them. 3 hours on hold with tech support and still unable to solve the problem.
2 years later I received an email saying "we want you back, please contact customer support to reinstate your account". Another 3 hours with support and still no way to get the account working.
Sometimes a promise comes even when you try not to make them
The short message is that sometimes I get stuck in a promise even when I try very hard not to make them. Sometimes I cannot keep my promises through no fault of my own.
I felt bad about the poor buyer who wanted to get a video card and not being able to ship it to him according to my agreement. I spent hours on the phone trying to get things resolved but at the end of the day it was futile there was simply nothing that I could do.
Which leads to "promises" on Hive
Now on Hive I suppose it could be said that I've made promises. Normally I will just tell people what my goal is and what I am trying to achieve. Usually prefaced with a statement like "I doubt think I'm going to be able to do it but I'm going to try to...."
However there are two instances where I think I may have made a hidden pledge that I need to keep.
FIRST: The Merchants Guild in Splinterlands
I started a guild in Splinterlands during its heyday and I had every intention of using it to support new players and grow value for everyone. I started up an altcoin "GLD" with the intention that anyone who put money in the guild to upgrades its features would be give "GLD" coin so they would never truly be out of pocket.
The economy of Splinterlands crashed, the majority of players left, and not everyone cashed out their GLD tokens.
So, to 
To make that happen I finally got around to setting up a swap pool on Tribaldex for GLD:Swap.Hive
SECOND: The contributors of #Be Frugal not Stingy
It is awfully quiet in the community these days and I give my sincerest apologies to those people who were contributing members.
I feel when I started to the community I made a commitment to care for it and its users. However, the first part was getting information (the alpha release) and I want to thank everyone who contributed. Now I'm working on figuring out the GLD token to carry the community further but that's a learning stage too. In that regard my apologies to :
I haven't forgotten you and haven't abandoned the community but I only learn things so quickly. To move forward with it I'm going to be trying to figure out the GLD token and how to use it to leverage community engagement.
Better to avoid Promises
In general I've found that making promises is hard work. Once made they mean being obligated even if you don't want to be. Sometimes those are intentional like to my wife. Sometimes unintentional like trying to sell on Ebay. Sometimes implied like when making a community, guild, or even just a second layer token.
Fulfilling those promises is important and sometimes things just go wrong. Sad when that happens.
Final Note: While the GLD token is NOT one I would recommend anyone get into right now as I haven't made a use case for it. If any of the members of #BeFrugal would like a few free tokens to play with drop me a response and I'll happily send a few as a thank you for waiting for me to keep my promise to continue the community!
Thanks for reading
and as always feel free to drop a comment.
I love comments