We all have heard these famous sayings at some or the other point in our lives, right? We have always been made to understand the importance of being punctual by our parents and our teachers at school since we were kids, and I totally vouch for it. Even in our professional lives, we are always expected to be on time and made to realize its worth. People tend to value the person who values time since this is the person who has already understood the most important aspect of life, and nothing can stop him from achieving success.

I believe the person who understands the importance of time can achieve anything in life. They are the ones who can manage their time to the best of their abilities and reach the goal they have set for themselves in life. Every minute is important and shouldn’t be wasted deliberately. We can achieve a lot in a minute as well; aren’t we made to realize that a minute isn’t a small amount of time when we do planks? God, that single minute!!!

When we go for job interviews, we always try to reach the place before the scheduled time so that we don’t miss the opportunity. However, I am sure most of us have experienced that the interview doesn’t start on time, and we are made to wait for hours sometimes. That is a very big turn-off factor for me because if the candidate’s time is not valued, do you think they are going to value you as an employee of their company? Moreover, it shows the unprofessionalism of the company.

So, punctuality says a lot about a person (or an organization in this case).

Having said that, I also feel that as much as having punctuality as a virtue is important (it is a blessing); being flexible is also equally important.

Why I sometimes wonder if it is a curse is because I have seen people who follow punctuality as a religion and get extremely upset when the other is not able to meet that standard. They don’t even give the person an opportunity to reason themselves out. I feel it is necessary to give the other person a chance to explain the reason, and then, you are the best judge to decide if the delay was genuine or not.

In today’s world, there are so many uncertainties. When we commit to anything, it is always to the best of our capabilities. But, as humans, it is not in our hands to foresee any unavoidable situations that may arise, and it may cause hurdles for us to complete our commitments in the deadline we had set. In such a situation, the best thing another person can do for someone is to listen. Lend your ear to the person and try to understand what may have caused the delay.

While there are few whose nature is to delay the task at hand and just come up with vague reasons for the delay, every person is not the same. Some people are genuine when they give a reason for the delay, and the most they ask of you is to just give them a chance to explain themselves. Those few minutes which you may spend on listening and reasoning, may just help someone in ways you may never even contemplate.

Life is difficult. If we may help a person in any way possible, we must try and grab that opportunity. As we have heard, what goes around comes around. So, the good we do for others always comes back to us in different ways. Along with this, even the satisfaction we feel when we are able to help a person in need, in any way, is worth all of it.

The quote below perfectly explains the importance of flexibility in life:

Too much of anything is bad. If we overdo anything that is good, the outcome may not always be good. A simple example — we all know that we should include nuts in our diet (especially vegetarians) as it is a rich source of protein. But, if we eat too much of it, it does produce excess heat in our body, which may lead to several health issues.