Keeping your word when it’s easy doesn’t tell anyone anything. Keep it when it costs you.

Promises are free while nothing gets in the way. What tells people who you are is the one you kept after it turned inconvenient, because that is when they learn your word does not depend on conditions. Everyone around you runs this test quietly, mostly without meaning to, and they keep the result.

Before agreeing to something, picture the version of that day where you do not feel like it. Say yes only to what survives the picture. Then keep the awkward one, and say so early and plainly if you genuinely cannot.