Exaggeration and Overcommitment

My latest article with Boundless webzine has been published. In a nutshell, the article is about how both exaggeration and over-commitment are distortions of the truth. With exaggerations, we stretch the truth to fit our purposes. With over-commitments, we either lie and say we will accomplish what we cannot accomplish, or we neglect our other God-given priorities in order to make our word good. Here's the opening:

I'd already done all the work I could do without the deliverable I needed from Bob. If I didn't get his report, I wasn't going to be able to finish the project on time. He'd told me that he'd have it for me by the end of the day yesterday, and while he meant well, we all knew that Bob just used words differently. End of the day could just as easily mean end of the week. You simply couldn't count on the guy to keep verbal commitments.

As nice as he was (he always meant well), everyone in the office was starting to make up excuses to avoid having him as a part of their project team.