It’s Tuesday morning and you wake. You remember that you have agreed to meet someone for coffee at 8.30 but cannot remember if it is Sally or Melissa. You kind of hope in that split second that it’s Sally. Good old Sally. Relaxed, laid back ‘don’t you stress about it’ Sally. Because here’s the thing… You have an urgent parcel to send off and the post office only opens at 8.30am and if you go to the post office first it will make you late for coffee. Possibly only 10 minutes late. But late. You could (at a stretch) post it at lunch time, but this might mean the parcel will miss its’ deadline.

Getting out of bed you traverse the stairs and imagine being late for Melissa.

You visualize her sitting pertly in the stainless steel and leather dining chairs in the center of the café her eyes darting around at the café counter, the chair beside her and that mark on the table cloth. You can almost hear her tummy rumbling for that un-ordered coffee. You don’t want to keep Melissa waiting….

You have arrived downstairs and your diary sits closed in front of you. Just to tease yourself you visualize Sally. She (conversely) is sinking back into the leather sofa in the corner of the café; a woman’s weekly in her hand; her eyes scanning the recipes section, then travel or perhaps the article on how to write a done list. Two steaming cups of coffee sit at the wait in front of her (one with the chocolate already scooped off) and a large caramel slice with two forks sits obediently in anticipation. Laid back Sally!

You open your diary.

8.30am – Melissa – Café Brie.

Meticulous Melissa. Driven, organised completely reliable one of a kind Melissa.

You smile. You love Melissa; have amazing conversations with Melissa. And she is the first one you would call in a crisis.

That parcel is going to be late!

You see – you love and respect both Sally and Melissa and they have both taught you how to treat them.

Melissa taught you she highly values punctuality. Sally taught you she doesn’t.  You like neither of these women more or less than one another. It’s just that you would have felt quite comfortable keeping Sally waiting but not so Melissa. Interestingly, you would not feel comfortable bringing shop bought Pavlova to Sally’s afternoon tea but wouldn’t blink an eye doing that to Melissa. (Melissa understands you may have priorities beyond a few hours in the kitchen. Sally would say nothing but you know she would feel hurt that you hadn’t put the effort in for her).

Acknowledgement of the day……………you teach people how to treat you….so give that a tweak if you like!