Fulfilling a Promise

I try to be sure I keep my promises.

Do I miss sometimes?  Yep, but not intentionally.

I pride myself on my integrity.  If I say I am going to do something, I will do it.

It might take me a while, but I will follow through.

Unfortunately, I'm not as good as following through with promises to myself.

See, in November nearly two years ago, I promised myself if I lost 30 lbs. I would buy myself a Ford Mustang GT. 

Lost the 30 lbs. 

Didn't buy the car.

I had a host of reasons for not buying: didn't need a third vehicle, didn't want to get rid of my truck, wanted one of the brand new models that I couldn't really afford.  I'm very patient, and the excuses made it easy to not keep my promise.

But as gas prices eased up and then lept up, we purchased another, small vehicle.  We turned into a three car family anyway.

One of my principle reasons for keeping the truck was it could hold all my family with ease.  If something happened to our Yukon XL, we had the truck to fall back on.  But now that we had two cars...we could still get places as a family if the XL went down albeit we would have to take two cars.

Then I considered the gas situation.  The truck gets great gas mileage...for a truck.  But if I traded it in for a late model GT, I'd improve gas mileage a bit, and I could probably get a check back because my equity would far exceed the cost of the vehicle.

I decided it was time to stop waiting.  I could forgo the 2011 Mustang and its 412 horsepower engine.  I don't drive that way anyway.  I'd settle for a 2005 or newer, and through a long process, I found one.

I'll blog about that experience and the lesson I learned from it later.

But I finally fulfilled the promise to myself.  I've got the car.  I love driving it.  There is no longer any cognitive dissonance within me for a promise left unfulfilled.  I no longer have my beloved pick-up, but I know we'll do just fine without one.

The kids and I have already enjoyed our first Saturday drive in it, and they had a blast.

I'm looking forward to getting a babysitter one Saturday so that my wife and I can go cruising around.

I hope to keep this machine until the wheels fall off, the engine quits, or my knees can't work the pedals anymore.  I intend for it to be my one and only muscle car.  And I am going to drive the hell out of it.