The Challenging Task of Arriving on Time. By Dante A. Musquiz. For the past few decades, my role has been to teach swimming, physical education, business administration, and engineering at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. And for the last 25 years, I've taught training courses on a variety of topics throughout the country, both in person and remotely. Throughout all these years, it has been a constant that at the scheduled start time for a session, the organizers announce we're going to wait a few minutes for the other people to arrive. An obvious response to the small number of participants already in the work area. I know quite a few people, and you probably know others too, who understand the word punctuality, but it's not one of their priorities or habits. You can imagine the endless list of excuses I've heard and read over the years. I forgot it was today. My alarm didn't go off. I had something to take care of, something came up, I ran out of gas. Or, it's not that late, is it? Even on their wedding day. One colleague went so far as to use the My Grandma Died excuse more than four times during exam periods throughout high school. Several of my students invariably arrived late to class because public transportation had been disrupted. Many participants in our courses argued that the last task at the office took them longer than expected. Some people prefer to arrive late, so they don't have to wait for the activity to start, and many even get angry because the event started on time. Didn't you want to or couldn't wait for me? Finally, several of my friends still maintain that being late is a way of showing off. Except for the last two, I want to believe that these expressions could be entirely true, and even tragic in some cases, and that they are not just pretexts thrown about aimlessly. To distinguish fiction from reality, one would need to consider a sufficiently long time frame to observe a clear trend. Just as we recognize people who are always on time, we can also identify those who are always late, because their statistical behavior demonstrates this. In both cases, breaking the rule causes surprise. For the former, the reaction will be one of bewilderment. Something must have happened. For the latter, surprise and even applause in a sarcastic celebration will be the response for having arrived on time on that particular occasion. Of course, we can all face unforeseen circumstances that make it difficult or impossible to arrive on time. Sometimes the severity or magnitude of the unexpected event is such that it even prevents us from reaching a place or event. But that's understandable. For a punctual person, it's something outside their usual routine. A flight scheduled to arrive in Reynosa one hour before the course began was cancelled, and the next available flight to Monterey was scheduled to arrive at the exact same time the activity was starting. As a result, the participants didn't arrive in Reynosa until noon. However, the participants' understanding allowed the activity to proceed successfully, with the schedule adjusted accordingly in the following days. There is no absolute certainty that you will always arrive on time for your scheduled appointments and times, but you can take some actions that help reinforce your punctuality and make it a habit. First, considering the current traffic patterns on most streets and avenues in our cities, identify the travel times and distances from your location to the meeting place, based on the time of day. Even if you consult a navigation app on your phone, you'll find that there may be three estimates: an average time, a more flexible one, and a tighter one. Always choose the most flexible estimate or add 15 minutes to the estimated time to account for potential delays. This will substantially reduce the stress caused by rushing. If you're driving, you might find a better parking spot, plus, you'll have more time to get your bearings and, if possible, choose a better seat. And if you arrive very early, take care of any pending messages, send greetings to family and friends, make that call you've been meaning to make, plan your next activities, check the news, or chat with those who also arrived on time. If you're going to be late, use whatever means are available to you and send a message in time. That is, as soon as the problem arises, let them know your arrival will be delayed. That's courtesy, consideration, and respect for others. It could be during your journey if you encounter a traffic jam, a detour, or any other incident. It could also be due to illness or a situation that requires your immediate attention. That's the best time to inform them. Communicating promptly is valuable and appreciated. Doing so later can be interpreted as a pretext or, at least, generate suspicion that weakens trust. Punctuality also means knowing when to prepare to leave. If you have several activities to do, scheduling works by leaving the first event on time to move smoothly to the next. It's your responsibility to schedule each activity with enough time to spare. Punctuality, as can be seen, reflects the importance we place on events and the people who invite us. But, beyond that, it demonstrates the value we assign to keeping to schedules. It is a distinguishing characteristic and, as we mentioned at the beginning, generates a good impression, as well as surprise when the pattern is broken. It is up to you to improve your punctuality record, and of course, we would be pleased to hear your results.