Emotional Bank: Punctuality

Do you have family members, relatives, and friends who like to be “fashionably late”? Yes, I’ve heard that being late is the new “cool” nowadays. Whether it’s your friend not showing up on time to meet you or how about those timely appointments in making sure you don’t wait in the lobby for a long time? Yeah right. You know what I’m talking about.

I am more curious as to why some people don’t mind being late or even worse, intend to be late. Even I am catching this plague wave – at least I’m constantly resisting it. Whoever said it’s fine to be late? Regardless of whether there is a rule or not towards punctuality, I believe it’s to our own benefit to be punctual. And here’s why.

Emotional Bank

There are two kinds of banks in our society: Financial Bank and Emotional Bank.

Financial bank is your typical bank where money is being deposited and withdrawn. It’s a place where you get a student loan, car loan, or home mortgage with interest rate payment. It’s also a place where make enough investment to make interest income. Some people’s goal is to make enough deposit that they live on their interest income. The currency in a financial bank is money.

Emotional bank, what is it? Look around you, every human being you interact with is an emotional bank. Your family, relatives, friends, and strangers are all emotional banks that you make deposits to and withdrawal from. In these kinds of bank, when you make deposits, you gain interest and when you make withdrawals, you pay interest.

There are thousands of currencies that you can deposit and withdraw from an emotional bank. Let’s look at one emotional currency in particular – punctuality.

Making deposits and withdrawals using Punctuality:

Depositing to an emotional bank means that:

• You show mastery – being on time consistently shows that you are the master of your life. It demonstrates foresight – your ability to predict possible hang-ups. It also shows your adaptability – ability to change your plans to accommodate those hang-ups.


• You show competence – Over and over, you show that you are a master of your time and will be taken seriously in areas far removed from time management. That foresight and adaptability that gets you where you need to be, when you need to be there, tells the people around you that you can handle whatever is thrown at you.


• You show integrity – punctuality is also a trust issue. When you make appointment, you are making a commitment to be where you said you’d be when and said you’d be there. The best way to build up other people’s trust in you is by consistently meeting your commitments.
  


• You value people – people are busy, too busy to be waiting on your while their other work goes unfinished. Being punctual shows, clearly and truly, that you value their time and, by extension, that you value them as a person.


• You value yourself – Finally, being on time shows you value your time – and yourself. Being repeatedly late is a self-destructive behavior. Everyone knows that most self-destructive behavior follows from low self-esteem.

Withdrawing from an emotional bank means that:

• You show no mastery – that you are incapable of anticipating possible problems and either dealing with them or altering your course to avoid them. It sends the message that you’re harassed by time, not in control of it.


• You show no competence – conversely, people assume that if the chronically late person can’t even consider the possibility of a little extra traffic, he or she won’t be able to consider other obstacles that might stand in the way of getting a project or task done.


• You show no integrity - You said you’d be here at 9 o’clock but you’re not here; if your word isn’t good enough about something as trivial as showing up on time, how can you word be any good about anything more important?


• You show no value in people – “But I’m always on time for the things that are important.” The message this sends is that, when I’m late, it’s because I really don’t feel that whatever I’m late for is all that important. How about the “big entrance”, the “fashionably late” that I mentioned earlier? Let’s face it – showing off your importance by having other people sit and wait on you clearly says, “You’re not important to me.” And everyone knows the solution – don’t show up, or wait until the moment’s just right, and stab that high-and-mighty loser in the back. If you like to make the grand entrance, don’t worry – someday soon you’ll make a grand entrance to an empty room.
  


• You show no value in yourself – Being late demonstrates that you’re interruptible, that your work in never as high a priority as whatever trivial thing comes along and that you’re unwilling to set priorities in your own life. In that case, why should anyone else care about your time? Why shouldn’t they interrupt you whenever they feel like it, dump meaningless busy-work on you, or dismiss you entirely?
  
  

Remember the next time you make a promise to a family member, relative, or a friend, as trivial as “I’ll be there at 6 o’clock” or other important commitments and depending on whether you fulfill them or not, you are either making a deposit or withdrawal from an emotional bank.

If you want to be wealthy in people’s heart and mind, consider making small deposits every now and then so that someday, you’ll enjoy the interest of your hard-earned investment from your emotional banks.