A promise is a request for faith. A promise is a commitment to the future, almost always in place of an act in the present. When you make a promise to someone, you’re asking for their faith that you’ll do in the future what you aren’t doing now, for whatever reason.
Sometimes you have a good reason for this, but be honest about what it is. And don’t make promises to yourself. You’ll act or you won’t, but you don’t need to convince anyone. You just need to do what you need to do. Promises don’t factor in. If you start treating yourself like someone you can fool, you’ve lost.
The Opportunity Machine 