The Art of Following Through

I missed one day of school my sophomore year of high school.  I didn’t miss any my junior or senior years.  It wasn’t because I was a great student, dedicated to getting good grades, but I wasn’t sick, so I didn’t pretend to be so.  The day I did miss my sophomore year was because I was a procrastinator. I still am for that matter.  Some things don’t change.

That one missed day my sophomore year, followed an all-nighter that I pulled for my English class.  We had to read a book of our choosing and make a project.  On our assigned day we presented our project to the class. Our projects highlighted the books we had chosen.

I read a book about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  My project was a scale model poster of the harbor on the morning of December 7th, 1941.  Drawing an outline of the harbor, its airfield, and the buildings that surrounded it, took a lot of time.  There were over one-hundred ships in the harbor that morning and my poster held a scale model replica of the entire fleet.   I used a different color construction paper for each type of ship and a boatload of Elmer’s glue. That was a lot of cutting and pasting.

It was a beautiful poster but staying up all night led to my becoming ill.  I couldn’t go to school the next morning, but I talked my mom into taking the poster to school for me so my teacher would know I had completed the assignment.

While my college attendance wasn’t as exemplary as my high school days, I handed in all my assignments on time. I did what was required of me, but seldom went the extra mile.  My grades in high school and college reflected my lack of dedication.

I got my first real job in my junior year of high school.  That’s where I learned to do my best.  I didn’t want to let my boss down, so I did what was required and then some.  My initiative was rewarded. I got days off when I asked for them and was given new responsibilities.  New responsibilities brought new opportunities.

More importantly, if I said I was going to do something, I did it.

The difference for me between school and outside work was I was only affecting myself if I did poorly in school.  If I didn’t do my best at work, my lack of detail affected others.  I didn’t want to let the “others” down.

When I was in leadership positions, I leaned on those who I knew would follow through.  I followed that up by providing the support they needed to become successful.  Everyone won.  Things got done, and they were done very well, because we worked together to accomplish our goals.   Our goal was the target, but working together was the process.  Success led to more success.  You see it in athletics, but it’s true in all works of life.  I think it could be true in politics if we looked for similarities rather than differences.

As I’ve gotten older, I see people dropping the ball all the time.  They don’t follow through.  They make statements they don’t back up.  It’s probably been around most of my life, but I was too busy to take a look from the outside.

So, what’s my great takeaway.  If you say you’re going to do something, do it.  If you set a goal for yourself, work to ensure your success.  When life happens, and sends you off course, don’t stand silently by hoping things will change.  Let others know and seek help if you need it.

Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.