I don’t credit my scouting experiences with doing much for me. Yeah, I earned my Eagle, and my project was a long way more important than some blood or book drive. (And more difficult to plan than having your mom do it for you.) But I don’t feel like it was that impactful in my life.
But I keep finding myself in situations where I end up taking things I acquire/own/am around and improving them.
Maybe I need to give my scouting experiences more credit. At least with giving credit to providing words that I apparently live by.
Leave it better than you found it
Probably Anonymous. Possibly Robert Baden-Powell?
For scouts, this is usually the mantra the leaders mindlessly drone when it’s time to clean up. It generally means “pick up your trash, and make the campsite look like someone swept it.” (The first of course is a good idea and had better include packing your trash out, and the second is inane, because who would sweep dirt?)
In my life, I find that everything I do is affected by this idea. (Maybe infected?)
At work, I take processes that are effective and I make them faster (like 50-90% faster). I’ve automated at least 2 full time people’s worth of work in 2+ years. In required processes. The amount of manual reporting I’ve eliminated may add up to at 2-3x that. (I don’t count reporting toward what I’ve automated away: it’s too hard to track.)
We took our house where we lived in Utah and completely changed the yard. Made it more water conscious, completely renovated (except the kitchen) the inside–just made it better.
My teaching in church has always focused on application and improvement.
My coaching has done the same.
So what’s the point?
If it’s not being made better, it’s probably getting worse.
Jordan found the old listing pictures of our new house yesterday. (A house we think was poorly maintained and is a complete disaster.) And discovered the last time it sold (before we bought it), it had brand new carpet and was as cute as a 95 year old farmhouse could likely be.
Which means the people we’re buying it from absolutely thrashed it. All the carpet is gone. Windows had been broken.
It was like they bought something, didn’t think of the impact of their choices, and just tried to use the resources till they were all gone.
It used to be green across the property, and now a whole two extra acres is brown and disgusting (uncovered ground is about the worst thing you can have for plant nutrition).
And, yet again, we find ourselves in a situation where improving it (doesn’t matter what it is) is our most likely course of action.
Huh.
Not really surprised.