Chapter 31

ALWAYS ON TIME

The prophetess Ashanti, while teaming up with the prophet Ja Rule, projected the following wisdom onto the planet: “I’m not always there when you call, but I’m always on time. Gave you my all; now baby be mine.”

Arriving on time is easy. All you have to do is plan accordingly. Good planning means you’ve developed good organization skills. Good organization skills can be learned.

                Nothing looks more unattractive than a person who shows up late—full of excuses. All it says is this: My life is a mess. I’m a selfish person who chooses to stall the progress of others. I believe I’m so important that other people should put their lives on hold and wait for me.

                People need to be able to count on you. Your word is your bond.

                Here’s a great idea for developing the skills needed to be on time: Start cleaning. You may be thinking, How can cleaning help me become a punctual person? Cleaning forces you to organize your life. When your life is organized, you’ll spend less time trying to find things when you’re getting ready to go somewhere. Everything is in order; everything has its place.

                Cleaning will also fill you with a sense of empowerment. You set a goal (cleaning your office) and you achieved it. Small victories like this tend to boost one’s self-confidence. When you’re in a confident state-of-mind, you’ll be more likely to make decisions that are aligned with that emotional state.

                You’ll refuse to make decisions that might lead to you being late, because that would violate your sense of “who you now are.” You’re now an empowered person of confidence, and being late doesn’t reflect that nature.

                I dated this girl who was always arriving late. She’d leave the house of the guy she was cheating on me with, and always arrive at my house late. Okay, so I don’t have proof that she was leaving his house, but she was always late.

                One night, while anticipating her late arrival, I printed out a certificate that said something like:

 “Congratulations! When it comes to being late, You’re #1! Today, [Name of Girl] was only ____ minutes late. Awarded on [this day], in the year 2008.”

I had an 8x10 frame on stand-by, and when she pulled up, I penciled in the exact number of minutes she was late, slid it into the frame, and set it on my kitchen table. I think she was 51 minutes late. I’m a stellar boyfriend to have; I’m always doing cute things like that. You should quite possibly, definitely maybe consider being my future-girlfriend. Just make sure you’re always on time, like Ashanti.