Lack of punctuality can be nerve-wringing. Nothing is more awkward than making arrangements with someone for a while and then seeing the minutes go by without the person showing up, some don’t even arrive in the next few minutes, but they can take hours or never to get there. who are almost always repeat offenders: they never get anywhere in time.
If it’s time for the meeting and they haven’t arrived yet, you call and say “I’m on my way. “Some say, do I already have? When they should have arrived by now. His lack of punctuality is chronic. No human force can lead them to do otherwise.
“Better three hours before a minute late. ” William Shakespeare
The truth is that time is a completely subjective category, humans have invented several ways to measure it, yet everyone perceives and manages it according to a series of subjective variables, for some it is an exact measure that needs to be adjusted. ; for others, it is an uncomfortable limit that means nothing to them; and for others, it’s also a measure of his emotional pulse.
Each person perceives time differently. It depends mainly on age, when you’re young hours seem days and days are weeks, so kids get so impatient. The older we are, the faster the clock seems to be. You don’t know when the day or month ended: you just know it was too fast.
The measure of time also depends on the number of activities you do, if there are too many, time seems to pass faster, if there are few, your perception will be slower. Obviously, your mood is another influencing factor, happy moments pass quickly, while in the stage of suffering or trouble, it’s as if the hours have stopped.
In any case, the human being establishes a connection between their perception of time and punctuality or absence, if circumstances coincide so that you understand that time is a very limited and valuable resource, you will surely try to be very precise in your schedules. If your consideration of time is not so high, you will see a limitation on the exact hours. Some overestimate time and others take a closer look at the activity itself, no matter how long it takes.
This way of perceiving time, slow or fast, interferes with event planning, many people who lack punctuality are actually bad planners, they do not want to despise anyone. They simply do not calculate well, they are easily distracted and the sense of urgency that invades others does not overwhelm them, in this case the lack of punctuality only reflects distraction and lack of maturity.
Some people with chronic need for punctuality do not belong to this innocent category of distracted, their lack of adequacy of social time is part of other peculiarities, chronic delay sometimes implies that behind it there is an overly narcissistic personality, they are people who want to put the other in a condition of need, lack or vulnerability; in short, they use their lack of punctuality as a mechanism of power.
There is also the case of people who are late everywhere because they are very insecure, one way or another they are afraid of the situation of the meeting and that is why they try to postpone it as much as possible, they do it unconsciously, it is not on purpose. They simply do not take the necessary measures to be punctual and do not know the motive, they basically fear being rejected or belittled.
Likewise, there are those who use the lack of punctuality to express an unfounded rebellion, resist the situation caused by the encounter, their late arrival is a way to make this rejection visible, but at the same time a way of posing a challenge. There may be something that is not in the right place and the lack of punctuality becomes a vehicle to make it visible.
The common thing in all cases of lack of punctuality is that there is ambivalence, in these cases two realities are played: the explicit, time-marking, and hidden, that sabotages this agreement. Behind the lack of chronic punctuality, there is always a hidden message to be demented. It is not bad traffic, nor mere carelessness that gives rise to this habit without consideration. Not arriving on time is often a disguised and uncomfortable way to convey a message.
Images courtesy of Pascal Campion, Rob Gonsalves.