Today’s Thought - Preparation
My music teacher came up with a great analogy today:
“There is a reason the light from a flashlight can only shine so far for you to see”
Think about that. It’s the same when driving a car. You only need to see so far in the present moment. Knowing too much of your future, or the either extreme which is not having a single clue about where you are going, is definitely bad for your preparation.
When it comes to preparation for something, you can only prepare so much. Chances are, the more you do, the more luck you create for yourself. Improvisation is a wonderful skill to master though because you learn to embrace change and make the best of it.
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
Here’s my little story for you. I had to prepare a Voting Delegate powerpoint presentation for a state leadership conference in FCCLA. I put my heart into that presentation because not many members know what Voting delegates represent in FCCLA, other than the word voting.
Let’s just day things didn’t go very well when it came to have the right electronics. We couldn’t open the file because of a failing PowerPoint projector and file opening error. I knew my presentation enough to improvise and speak the entire thing VERBALLY.
I had to improvise. Difficult to accomplish, but the message was grasped and value was added to their understanding of FCCLA. The experience may not have been much different with the powerpoint, except my presentation style would have been stronger.
So, I’ve only barely wrapped my brain around preparation because it is a one of the crucial aspects of self-leadership. Good leaders know how to prepare for action and do what most people are unwilling to do.
What does preparation mean to you?
