Up Yours!

Up yours, mister!

First posted 04:29am (Mla time) Aug 20, 2005
By Katrina Holigores
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page C2 of the August 20, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


COME rant with me. Has the past week (or weeks) been rife with frustrations? Have you or the people around you been screwing up royally? Texts gone unanswered, clients non-committal, phone calls never returned, delays, misunderstandings, plain old incompetence slapping you left and right?

Well, if you are like any normal hot blooded individual I can bet with my own blood boiling in my veins that you came pretty close to just losing it or fuhgeddahbout-ing whatever it was you wanted to achieve. I remember seeing a T-shirt once upon a time with the very funny (albeit pathetic) slogan, when all else fails …lower your standards. Well, today, despite what I wrote above, I’m going to tell you to up yours… standards that is.

Obviously, we cannot change the world in a day. Or even in a hundred, but we can certainly do our part to make sure that on our little patch of earth, we are contributing in a positive way to the rest of society. Unless you are born without any human compassion, or a conscience, then it may be time that you start throwing mundane excuses out the door. It’s not about living a normal life, it’s about living an extraordinary existence. Sounds too poetic, overly dramatic and damn near unachievable right? Well, as vehicular tycoon Henry Ford was once quoted “Whether you think you’re going to fail or succeed, you’re absolutely right.” If you don’t even try to be a cut above the rest, then you have already banished yourself to be just like the rest. So again, when everyone else has lowered their standards… up yours.

But everyone comes late you say, so? If you are to be known for something then let people know that you are considerate enough with the awareness of time to allow for more things to be achieved during the day. Hey, the world does not and never will revolve around you, bigshot, that’s what the sun is for. If people around you have lowered their expectations of time-keeping then up yours. If you are heading a group, whether as a manager, president, or just head of your school org then set an example. If you dictate a time and place to meet, make sure to do whatever it takes to be there according to what you have set. It doesn’t matter if everyone else lags behind, you look to yourself as the leader. If it happens often enough, the more valuable members of your group will take note of that, and hopefully up their own practice of time management. All in all, you set an example, and at least you can say you did your part, even in a perceived small way. Time is gold as the cliché goes.

Mean what you say. Paying lip service is such an ingrained way of life in our country, “I’ll call you,” “I’ll get back to you” is a promise, not a conversation ender. If you need to tell someone that you are not going to make it, not going to give them the job, not going to see them, then they deserve to know. If others have reduced themselves to saying just about anything in order to end something, then step up. Be a man, or a woman, and mean what you say. You have committed to someone else a response, and they in turn have trusted you to keep your word. It’s just a phone call, or a text to say yes or no, how much time does one need to do that. You have the hottest phone/PDA and/or iBook in the market with Wifi capabilities… and yet they never hear from you again. (Twilight Zone soundtrack) I assume that you don’t like to be kept hanging, or more appropriately termed made “bitin” so why would you assume anyone else would?

Oh, and as a footnote… flakes… should only belong in cereal, snow and uncared for scalps. You plan not to show up? Let them know… you have no intention of going? Let them know too, in the nicest possible manner. “I’ll try” I have come to learn is a very weak, tail between the legs “No.”

Maybe I am too idealistic, and maybe my expectations are too high. But honestly, I am convinced that there are loads of people out there from the very young to the very old who still believe in progress, and not just on the economic scale but on the maturity one. It is simply the awareness that there are others who have taken a risk in you by believing that you will deliver what you say you will. They have made the effort to be available when you say to be available and they also put their faith in your sincerity. So, as we enter into another weekend, you may want to look at the quality level of life of your peers and colleagues and decide if it’s time to up yours. End of rant.