According to the Oxford Dictionary, Dependability means the quality of being trustworthy and reliable.
Father's Day is here and I know that there are a lot of great fathers and father figures out there. But there are also some fathers who aren't as good, who gave up and ran when the going got tough or that were never interested in a child in the first place. One of the best virtues to have in anyone that you're in a relationship with is dependability, that they'll show up when you need them and that you can trust them when they tell you they'll do something. Happy Father's Day to all fathers, I hope that you keep being dependable and that you keep being awesome and if you see something you don't like, then change.
One thing that my parents always instilled in me was to honor all of my commitments. That if I made a promise, I had to follow it. I've quit a lot of things in my life and haven't always honored these commitments that I've made but I should've. I've made so many commitments to myself that I haven't followed through on, that I haven't kept. I need to change that, I need to be better about that.
Dependability, who can you rely on? Who can you trust? I love the word dependability because if you rearrange it, you literally get the ability to depend. One of my favorite quotes is "family don't end with blood" from Supernatural (even though I've never seen the show) because your chosen family, the people that you choose to spend time with and be around, that is part of your family as well. Sometimes that's the only family you have and that's okay.
A lot of my favorite characters in books were the ones that were loyal and dependable and they did whatever they could for those around them. One good example of this is John Smith from the "I am Number Four" series. He never gave up on those he cared about, even if everyone else did. If he cared about someone, he put all that he had into them and never gave up. That's one of the virtues that I want to exhibit at all times.
A quote from Roy L. Smith describes it this way, “If you are a man of dependability, you are worth more than if you were clever.” I agree with that sentiment because clever people are smart and they might have good ideas, but how they enact those ideas and how those ideas are implemented and who they hurt to get those ideas accomplished usually make the ideas not worth it. You could consider that dependability, but I think that's more consistency and determination.
What I'm doing to cultivate dependability: I think dependability is more about not booking yourself and showing up for what you say you're going to show up to. This one is probably the easiest to start to cultivate as long as you get good at managing what you've agreed to and have a good calendar/time management system.
Dependability, I hope that you learn how to be more dependable and maybe that starts with consistency. Maybe that starts with just showing up and being there. I think that consistency comes before dependability because consistency is just showing up and being dependable takes that a step further and people know that you'll show up. You got this, just show up. :)
Signing off,
-Alex Risdall :)
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