A wise person once said to me: “The secret of success is to simply do what you say you will do.” At the time, this advice seemed almost trite and I shrugged it off. Maybe I was naïve, but I assumed that everyone did what they said they would.

Boy was I wrong.

[sws_picture_frame3 src=”http://clearconceptinc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/delegation.gif” title=”” alt=”” align=”sws_frame_right” lightbox=”” album=”album” video=””] [/sws_picture_frame3] Lack of follow-through seems to be hitting epidemic proportions. I am not talking about the person who occasionally slips up. We are all human after all. I am talking about people who are casual about deadlines – so much so that they often miss them. I am talking about people who never make a note of the things they say they will do. And I am talking about people who get down-right defensive when someone confronts them. These are the folks who say “I’ll send it to you by Friday”, but all you get are crickets.

Logically, we know that this is a bad habit. Our credibility suffers, we let other people down and we lose their trust in the process. Despite our best intentions, following-through is tough to do.

Why is “follow-through” so challenging?

1) Because we are over-committed: We get busy with other things and we leave no buffer time.

2) Because we don’t fully respect the deadline: We justify our delay by telling ourselves that the other person didn’t really need it so soon, or that our other work was more important. But this doesn’t really address the heart of the issue: we didn’t do what we said we were going to do.

3) Because we never really intended to do it: Sure, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But our opinion was likely overshadowed by our eagerness to please. Once we stepped away and thought about it, we realized that it wasn’t something we wanted to do.

4) Because we forget: We can’t possibly remember all of our casual commitments if we don’t have a good system to track them.

5) Because we meant to say something different: We really meant to say “I could do this, if you follow-up with me and if I have free time and if I still want to do it after thinking about it for a few days.”

6) Because we can get away with it: Unfortunately, this last reason is probably the best reinforcement. Other people often let us get away with it. They suffer their annoyance and inconvenience in silence as we hop along in our merry, ignorant way.

Sure it is tough to follow-through, but talk is cheap. Actions are the only things that count. I have come to realize that it is the little things that make a big difference. And this wise advice wasn’t so trite after all.