How to succeed in business has been the theme of countless books. There are equally as many written about improving our personal lives. We'd like to share with you a book that bridges the gap between these genres by teaching you how to make, manage, and ultimately keep your promises.

Meet the Womacks
Craig and Jason Womack aren't just father and son. They are a two-man tour de force on the subjects of personal and professional achievement.

Craig Womack has dedicated the last 37 years of his life to retail specialty, serving for 13 of those years as the President and COO of The Sharper Image. In 2002, Womack took over as the CEO of Human Touch, LLC, growing the robotic massage chair company into a 120-million dollar a year business. He has since left that position in order to pursue his most current endeavor.

Son Jason's career path began at somewhat the opposite end of the spectrum. After graduating UC Santa Barbara with a Master's degree in education, and the designation of Student Teacher of the Year, Jason taught high school Spanish and History.

Craig says while sitting in on a class during Jason's second year as a teacher, he witnessed his son's true talent first hand. "I was amazed at his ability to engage and educate," says Craig, proudly adding that he considers his son a master communicator.

Jason realized these talents too, as he eventually left teaching to start The Womack Company. He now acts as both a business consultant and public speaker on the subjects of workplace performance and productivity.

It was during a family ski trip when the Womacks first spoke about a collaboration of their talents. Feeling they had a collective knowledge worth sharing, the two focused on writing a book.

Over the following year, Craig and Jason listened to peers, friends, and family, and realized that a reoccurring theme in peoples' lives was the inability to finish what they started. Making it the topic of many of their own discussions, the Womacks came to a conclusion that would become the focus of their book – success, both professionally and personally, is contingent on keeping the promises you make to others and yourself.

The Promise Doctrine
One of the main goals for both father and son was to create a book that would do more than just take up space on a bookshelf. They wanted it to be read and used. Ultimately, they created a system, in the form of a guidebook, which helps readers choose, manage and accomplish anything they are truly committed to.

The Womack's system focuses on helping the reader answer four important questions regarding their endeavors:

• How do I keep track of all I've said yes to?
• Why did I say yes to that?
• How do I say no to something that will take me off course?
• How do I determine if I'm on course?

Openly stating that their system for achievement is a compilation of many existing systems, the Womacks claim theirs differs from the others in two ways.

First, as opposed to being bogged down with minutia, they've made things very simple. The book is not only an easy read, but the action steps they put forth are both minimal and very clear.

"There's no filler," claims Craig, adding that each page was carefully designed and articulated.

Second, and maybe the authors' greatest source of pride, is the book's ability to be a tactile experience for the reader. It includes foldouts, room for the reader's notations, easy reference abilities, and a quick tips section for each of their six elements for keeping a promise: make a promise, perform, hurdles, renegotiate, trust, and celebrate.

In terms of the organizational aspect to keeping the various promises we make, the Womacks have set up yet another easy system known as The Promise Guide. While its appearance is not unlike a simple spreadsheet, the promise guide helps the reader take on all of their promises at once by asking the reader to make the following notations:

1. List your promises/goals
2. List your milestones (action steps with due dates within each goal)
3. Check-in (a color-coded method for listing results)
4. Comments

If it sounds simple, it's supposed to. According to Jason, "That's the beauty of it."

Something we find very interesting about The Promise Doctrine is its ability to transcend the world of business, almost serving as a guidebook for how to effectively and ethically live your life. These thoughts are echoed in the foreword of the book, written by author, consultant and executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith.

Goldsmith writes, "Ethical behavior is a key characteristic of successful leaders. If people are going to willingly follow a leader, they need to trust that their leaders are going to bring them to a place where they want to be. Today, many people believe that ethics are lacking in their leaders and go so far as to say that ethical behavior will become the most important quality of leaders of the future."

One thing is for certain. The system the Womacks set forth has worked for them on both professional and personal levels. Their business résumés speak for themselves, but something you may not realize by reading the book is that their personal lives are also thriving.

Both men are very happily married, devoutly connected to family and friends, and pretty much succeed at whatever they take on. Case in point - they managed to author and self-publish The Promise Doctrine while living several hours away from each other, all the while tending to their respective families and businesses. Throw in the fact that Jason is an avid triathlete and you know these gentlemen practice what they preach.

When asked who would benefit from reading The Promise Doctrine, the gentlemen explained that their target audience falls into two main groups. The first are results-driven individuals who realize the importance of a promise kept. The second they say are executives, leaders and teachers who promote sustainable communities, or parents who influence our future decision makers. They would love to see their book as part of college curriculums, new student packages, new hire packages, and in the homes of everyday people.

We asked the two gentlemen what would be the one thing they'd hope for readers to take away. Their answer, "Promises are powerful!"

The Promise Doctrine is available on the Womacks' website, PromiseDoctrine.com, and Amazon.com. They have told us that an audio version of the book is coming soon, and they are working on a series of books on the subjects of productivity, relationships and resilience.