The Spoken Word

When it comes down to the spoken and given Word, it may be honestly respected or disrespected completely.  Some cultures, religions, and people are very true to their word where as others are not.

Living in Morocco, it was fascinating to meet some who were 100 percent true and others who were on the opposite end of the spectrum. One word honest and pure and another word lost and dishonest.

Sometimes people speak a dishonest word without any insight or awareness and they keep disrespecting their word with no care in the world. Many were confused and lost souls out of touch with religion and chasing their own word.  It could be a lifetime of chasing for these unfortunate people. It’s a serious problem to hold no value to the word you speak.  The word’s value depreciates overtime and when you lose the value of your word, you lose the meaning to your life.  

Within the Moroccan culture, it is better to present with uncertainty and some possibility rather than just be direct.  I  bring up this culture because I lived in this culture and my behavior was influenced in a negative way by making false promises to human beings.  Human beings rely on my word and they take it to heart.  Of course, this does not apply to all people, some people may not pay close attention to the word, but others will.  And for those people which are affected, your credibility decreases.  They wonder about your word, your delivery, and your genuine character.  When presenting with a friendly character, like myself, a person my hold higher expectations with my word creating a higher need for the delivery.  

While in Morocco, many people are accustomed to those who  respect and disrespect the word and condition themselves to not focus on the real delivery.  There might be a good intention behind the lack of honesty with the word, but in the end result it does not benefit the human being.  When you carry this behavior to other countries that fully respect the word, you lose your credibility.   For example, In Guatemala I catch myself saying, “I will see you tomorrow” or “I will be back” when I am not sure if I will actually be back.  

Being an analyst, I analyze the times that I do this and I remind myself of the word.  While there may be good intention behind making a commitment or promise to another being, it is a disappointing result when you don’t come through.  Some may think nothing of it, but others can be sincerely hurt.  This is a learned cultural behavior that is being passed into new cultures-not great.  The more aware we are of our behavior, the more likely we are to change it.  We get stuck in specific behaviors because we just keep doing them with no specific attention to them. 

In Guatemala, people focus and depend on the interaction.  If you let them down, you will feel it in your heart.  For example, if you go by a fruit stand and say, “Oh you have the best fruit, I will come here every day.” And then you never show up again, the value of your word just went down.  It’s kind of like a stock where your stock depreciates in value.  Your word depreciates and you can spend a lifetime catching up if you follow cultural norms and don't make a change to your behavior. If you see that person again, you may definitely feel some guilt for not staying true to your word and being acting as a hypocrite.  It's not worth it going through life being dishonest and untrue to your word, just keep it as honest as possible and keep moving.
 

A good, honest word will get you everywhere in life and a dishonest one will get you nowhere. PRIS