67 TOOL #2: UNDER PROMISE AND OVER DELIVER How often do you tell someone you will do something and the second the words of commitment leave your lips you feel the pressure of the deadline you have just created for yourself. Or how often do you commit to people just to be polite or because you want to please them or alleviate their stress or pain but know that the commitment will be very difficult, if not impossible to keep? And how about when your boss asks you for something and you automatically say, “Sure, I can do that. No problem!” And as you walk back to your office you begin to see the weekend at the lake you promised to the kids fly out the window and your stomach goes into knots thinking about how you’re going to explain it to them – again! For whatever reason, most of us tend to overpromise to others. If you find yourself in this predicament often, or even from time to time, you may want to adopt a new style of committing which we call: UNDERPROMISING AND OVERDELIVERING Underpromising is a good policy all around, especially when underpromising to ourselves! We often let ourselves down and make ourselves wrong because we put Getting things to people or getting things done before the time we told them usually making us look like a hero OR creating a buffer of time for ourselves in case something is delayed or goes wrong. Doing more than they expected and looking like a hero OR freeing ourselves up to have more choice and express more creativity. When we underpromise: TIME ACTION We overdeliver by:
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