Forget Being on Time!

Now, before you misread that statement, let me be clear, I didn’t say, “Be late!”  I said, “Forget being on time!” Why? Because it’s virtually impossible to be right on time. To find two people’s watches (or cell phones) to be in sync is a rare experience (and clearly not in sync for the same second).

In fact, I was recently at a meeting where someone was running late. The four of us who were already in the conference room checked our cell phones and noticed that all four of us had different times (and two of us were using the same cell phone carrier!). So forget being on time. Instead, be early!

Now, I know both of you tend to run late. So let me encourage you to consider that what drives lateness isn’t something that you want to drive your behavior (or mark your life) … selfishness. And let me share this from my own experience.

For years I’ve always run a few minutes late. Why? Because I was always trying to get “one last thing done.” Then when I moved from being the senior pastor of a church (where everyone was waiting to meet with me) to being a consultant, I started showing up earlier. And that’s when it dawned on me that for years, my lateness was driven by selfishness. Showing up late because I had to get work done (so they had to wait on me) wasn’t the mark of a servant. It was all me-focused–not other-focused.

Now, none of this was intentional. I never thought, “I care more about me and my time than theirs. So what if they have to wait?” But that is what it said to the other person. And now that I have to wait for some clients now, I’m even more aware of that.

So, my encouragement is that you always shoot to be early (as hard as that is for the two of you). And the key to being early, is to create margin. In other words, you have to stop pushing everything to the last moment, assuming that the world will be in perfect alignment and allow you to get from point A to point B in the best, most optimal time. Just because you made it ONE TIME in ten minutes, doesn’t mean that’s how long it will normally take (which is probably closer to 15 minutes).

In other words, it’s better to assume that something will go wrong and prolong your trip, than it is to assume that everything will go perfectly and you’ll arrive in the optimal amount of time. In addition, by choosing to create margin and arriving early, you’ll not only communicate to the other person that they matter to you, you’ll also greatly reduce your stress (and the chance of getting a speeding ticket :-).

So forget being on time! And start arriving early. It’s a great life lesson that’ll serve you well for the rest of your life.