How do you feel when somebody isn’t on time?

What does it make you feel like?

The other day I waited 20 minutes for somebody to show up. They were supposed to show up at 3:15, they finally showed up at 3:35. No text.

No explanation.

Back in the olden days, which I like to make fun of over and over, when we were late, we had no way to really communicate.

So when we finally got there we would say, I’m so sorry, the subway was the cause.

Between stations.

Or there was traffic.

We offered up an excuse right then and there.

Whether the excuse is valid or not, well, that was always to be determined.

But in today’s modern world there’s no reason to not keep somebody updated. And as a matter of fact, in today’s world there’s no reason to be late at all, because all you need to do is plug in the address that you’re going to and Google Maps will tell you your exact arrival time via car, foot, mass transit, or whatever else it might be.

But yet, people are consistently late in today’s day and age. Why?

Because it just shows they really just don’t give a shit about your time.

It’s a lack of respect when someone doesn’t call when they say they’re going to show up when they say they’re going to, and literally respect your time.

It’s just the way we are.

I always try to be on time for somebody because I know if they’re giving me their time, and I’ve got to honor the fact that they’re giving me their time. They’re giving up time that they can have to themselves, time they can enjoy with somebody else, time that they could be productive, time they can spend with their family. They’re giving me their valuable time, and I need to respect that, so I like to show up on time for that reason.

Plus I’ve got a deeper reason for it.

One thing in the world is: before you die, you don’t ask for more money, you always ask for more time. So I like to make the most of my days, make the most of each and every moment. Whether it’s showing up for friends…

Being with my daughter…

Or having a business call or meeting. I value and/or pride myself into not only being on time, but also not flaking on people as well.

Yes, there are reasons that’ll you’ll need to reschedule time of course, there are times that things come up, but as long as you make it up to somebody it’s okay.

But respecting someone’s time to me is really a true barometer of how somebody acts in all aspects of their life. How they relate to people, how they navigate the world.

And most importantly, how they show up in the world. People with high integrity will always respect somebody’s time, people with low integrity will not respect people’s time. Really is pretty much that simple.

That’s also a good way to judge characters as well. Someone tells you I’ll call you back in 10 minutes…

And they don’t call you back for four hours…

They don’t respect your time.

People who call you late are not respecting your time. We all have things, we all get busy, but we all need to stop the excuses, we all need to show up more for each other.