The integrity of punctuality is not holding others back with your inadequacies.
“If time is money,” it is said that punctuality is the single most important habit of successful entrepreneurs.
Punctuality is a disposition of reverence that respects the time of others. It is an understanding that time is important, and the time of others is valuable.
Punctuality is not only showing up on time for the meeting; which speaks volumes about your character, but the absence of punctuality relates to disorganisation, tardiness, hindering others and procrastination. When we detain others, we also infringe upon their reputation and opportunities.
For example, an employee who is habitually late or a volunteer who constantly strolls into a meeting a few minutes after it has started, violates the organisation’s culture as well as encroaches upon the integrity of the other leaders.
When we impede others, we are robbing them and stealing from them.
Being where you’re supposed to be, when you’re supposed to be, as promised, without exception, without excuse, every time, all the time, is more valuable than what most people realise.
Time is a treasure and an investment that pays off. We are not to waste or take advantage of others.
Many people with whom you work or serve with, considers punctuality not worth the effort or practice.
But suppose you were given only one day to live your complete lifetime. You are born at 7:00 a.m. and go to sleep and die at 11:00 p.m. You have a total of 16 hours and a lifespan equivalent of 80 years of living.
At 10:00 a.m. you will be 15,
At 12:00 noon, you would be well into your 20s, and,
At 3:00 p.m. you would be 40, and half way through your life, and,
At 6:00 p.m. you would be 55 and,
At 8:00 p.m. you would be 65, getting the idea?
The question then is how important is the “Character of Punctuality” for you and your organisation?
Consider the following facts:
The Punctual Person Gains the Advantage Over Everybody.
Being punctual gives you the Rights, the position—to expect and demand that others treat your time with the utmost respect.
One cannot hope to have others respect your time if you show little or no respect for theirs.
If you’re not punctual, you have no leverage, no moral authority.
If You Cannot Keep an Appointment on Time, You Cannot be Trusted in Other Ways.
There is a link between respect for others’ time and respect for others’ opinions, property, rights, business.
A person reveals a great deal about himself by his punctuality or lack of punctuality.
Punctuality is linked to integrity and sometimes success, which smart people are aware of, and I have come to appreciate over the years.
Smart, successful and influential people already know and secretly use this ‘factor’ to make their determinations about who they will do business with or not, buy from or not, help or not, trust or not.
You are naïve if you think a successful person does not have his own little “system” for judging people. Successful people have an “instant rejection criteria,” to save time in determining who they want to deal with and who they don’t.
If you are not a punctual person, others whom you wish to influence positively, will negatively judge you as an irresponsible, disorganised, dishonourable and as a dysfunctional person.
As someone once said, there are only two good reasons for being late for a meeting: one: you’re dead and two: you want to be.
