There are always lessons in life, put there for our benefit, which we can either ignore or benefit from. Sometimes, we learn from them but have a hard time retaining that knowledge and repeat them again and again. Sometimes, we refuse to learn the lessons and they are repeated again and again until either a cleft is formed in our thick skulls or we move on into the next life, having learned nothing.
As I wander through life, I try to learn and try and apply that knowledge in making my life, the lives of my family and friends, and the world in general, better. The operative "try to" should not be overlooked. I succeed. I fail.
At the moment, I am nearing the end of a project that has spanned the last several months. Our church has done some extensive remodeling that has encompassed the better part of the last year. Part of that renovation has been the replacement of the sound system, much of which has fallen to me as the resident "expert". I built a sound booth, from design to brushing on the lacquer topcoat. I am presently wiring the sanctuary for the new sound system. I will, in the next week, help another man finalize the installation. This, not being my day job, has taken virtually all of my free time during this period. I'll be glad to see it done. It has been rewarding, but also taxing. I'm ready for a break.
I've reflected on lessons I've learned in this project and others like it. I'd like to share those here:
- Do the best work you can do, no matter what the job. - It's always easy to slacken when you think no one will notice or you think the outcome doesn't matter. I've been tempted on many occasions to take short cuts. Resist the urge. Give it your absolute best effort. Push your abilities to and beyond their limits. When you get to the edge, create a new threshold that makes you a better person and hones a new edge to your skills.
- Realize that doing your best work takes more time and more effort. - There is a direct relationship between the quality of a job and the time it takes to do it. Time is one of the primary costs in doing a job well. Unfortunately, we don't always have the luxury of factoring that into our work. Forced deadlines rob us of the ability to do a better job and to do our best work. We should see time as a constraint in the same way we see our abilities and cost as a constraint. Do the best job you can, within your ability and the time available and the constraints of cost. Laziness is the worst enemy of quality work, so banish laziness from everything you do.
- Let doing a job well be its own reward. - We're often tempted to let someone in on everything we put into a project to make it happen the way it did. We don't want our hard work and our attention to details to be wasted and unnoticed. Fishing for compliments or saying, "Look how hard I worked" can make us look small and insecure, or worse, can make us look like someone whose primary purpose for existence is self-promotion. Resist the urge to toot your own horn so loudly. Keep those little jewels in a chest that only you have the key to. In the sound booth project, I discovered that a previous contractor or worker had taken some shortcuts in wiring a bathroom in an earlier remodel. This was, most likely, because of laziness, but definitely reflected a rather low standard of what "a job well-done" means. I corrected the problem, making it as it should have been done in the first place. My goal is to keep that to myself, not to publicize it in such a way as to malign the other fellow's character or to puff mine up in any way (other than sharing it in this venue, which no one reads anyhow).
- Don't be afraid to share credit or glory with someone else to see the best job done. - Initially, I had anticipated being in the lead of the whole process, including the design of the sound system itself. However, the Powers-That-Be decided to bring in a consultant to recommend what equipment we should have and how it should be installed. At first, my feelings were bruised, however, I soon realized that we just may get better equipment through this consultant than we would if I were doing the design (I would have been tempted toward frugality for the benefit of the church). As it is, I was correct. The overall quality of the install has been improved by having this fellow come in and steal my thunder. I have also seen that I have still had input and my opinions have been taken into consideration throughout the project. It was silly and childish to take offense in the first place.
So there you are: pearls of wisdom I've harvested from the Oyster of Life, and all of this at no charge to you.
