This past week has been a miscellany of emotion ranging from great triumph to some frustration, from total excitement to mere apathy, from vast optimism and trivial pessimism, all in the challenge of being conscious of what I say, what I declare and in honoring my word.

Last week, I published Oh my word and made a commitment to honoring my word. And in the world of Ward’s Notes, I said I would not only post a quote every workday, but that I would publish a new blog post every week for 10 weeks. (Wednesday is my planned day, as you may be noticing. — This is blog #2 of that promise!)

Outside of Ward’s Notes, I have also committed to honoring my word at large and in doing so, I have recognized more places where I haven’t been forthright with my word. Nothing “horrible” in an of itself but with “little” things. Simple things such as telling friends, family or co-workers, “I’ll get back to you on this tomorrow” or “I’ll call you later,” or simply showing up to a scheduled meeting a couple minutes late. All seemingly little things that most of us would consider insignificant. However just as “no raindrop blames itself for the flood,” these minor lacks add up drip by drip and may represent themselves in other areas of life still unseen.

So over the past week, I have been working to clean things up! I am reaching out to co-workers and friends where I have recognized my omissions in integrity. I have asked for their understanding and/or forgiveness and have restated new intentions in relation to where I was lax with the aim to restore – and honor – my word.

What I am finding is, not only am I restoring trust in my word with others, I am regaining trust in my word for myself. And not only that, these new statements have me more energized and focused as there is more at stake. I am careful not to over commitment myself as my ‘people-pleasing’ self tends to want to do and I am more focused on making sure that I am keeping the commitments I do say.

Do I still slip a little? Absolutely. (This is clean up time and there are some dust bunnies under the bed!) But I am already discovering that as I am mindful of my words and aware of the declarations I create that I am creating fewer occasions to not live in integrity and have more opportunity to honor my word.