Keep your word even when the other person forgot you gave it. You didn’t forget.

A promise is less a contract between two people than a description of you that happens to be spoken out loud. When the other person forgets, nothing about it changes except who is enforcing it. That is the moment you find out whether you keep your word because you meant it or because somebody was holding you to it.

Think of one thing you said you would do that nobody has mentioned since. Do it this week without pointing out that they forgot. Nobody thanks you, and you learn that the thing holds.