Is there a difference between a commitment and a promise? Yes, there is. It can be confusing I’ve known women who’ve been involved with men who made them promises but they were never actually committed. It’s a tricky place to be – where you hear lots of promises or you receive a lot of promises – but promises aren’t a commitment. For example, an engagement ring is a promise to get married – but it’s not a commitment.
The commitment happens when you actually get married. That’s when you make the commitment.
Yes, I know it’s semantics, but we live our lives based on semantics and words and inferences do have meanings. A promise is a stated intention to do something specific in the future. A commitment is a stated fact – it’s not an intention because you aren’t saying you are hoping for sunny days, you know it will be sunny days. You aren’t planning to get married, you are married.
Promises are not commitments.
Actions Speak Louder
A commitment is an action. A promise is a word. Actions speak louder than words. Yes, you can promise to make a commitment – that’s what a wedding ceremony is. It’s a ceremonial and verbal promise that enacts the commitment. But you can break marriage promises – so commitment is about your way of life, not necessarily about what you say – but what you do, day in and day out.
Can a married person be tempted to break their promises? Sure. But a committed one doesn’t. A committed person stays the course, they stay true to their vows – they look for the good in the bad and they do their best to make the relationship work.
I’ve tried to tell this to some of my friends before, especially when a boyfriend or girlfriend has broken their hearts. They’ll tell me that they were committed, that their boyfriend or girlfriend made all these promises – then they tore off and broke them. Commitment is more than just a promise – it’s a fact; it’s an action – it’s more than words can say.
Do you see the difference between a promise and a commitment?
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