how not to care about people talking too long in meetings

I ask myself so what….

So what if this person talks too long. So what if the meeting runs long.

Do I have somewhere I have to be? Am I about to perform open heart surgery? Am I late to pilot a transoceanic flight? If yes, then I can leave. If no, then what’s 5 more minutes? If 5 minutes goes by and I still am annoyed. I can always leave. Or I can sit through a little bit longer of someone talking.

Maybe that’s my act of service for the day, being a listener. Not even a good listener or a bad listener, just a listener. I can do that.

Maybe it’s more important for that person to say what they really need to say and for me just to sit and listen. Surely they have probably had to listen to me at some point. I can return the favor.

It’s not written in stone that meetings have to end at the top of the hour. Should they end….yes, they should. Do they always? No. Do they end on time or early 99% of the time? Yes. So this is an anomaly and things will be okay. If meetings start to habitually run late, then we can address it at that time. Until then. I can sit and pretend I’m listening. Or I can leave. It’s a free country.