The excitement of a new school year has passed, the days are getting longer and grayer (at least in our part of the world), and the anticipation of a holiday break seems a distant glimmer. It’s easy, when we get into the “groove” of the year, to ease up a bit, coast a little, lose a little of our edge, in short, to settle in a routine. Then factor in the piles of grading, reports to write, and meetings to attend. It’s no surprise we sometimes fall into a “it’s good enough/survival” mind set.
If you’re tempted to think this way, consider this:
Giving 100 percent is important. According to statistics compiled by the Communications Division of Insight, Syncrude Canada Ltd., if 99.9 percent were good enough, then:
- 107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day today.
- Two million documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
- 22,000 transactions will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes.
- 1,314 phone calls will be misplaced by telecommunication services every minute.
- 18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour.
- 291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly this year.
- 880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
- 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written in the next 12 months.
- 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped this year.
- 315 entries in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language will turn out to be misspelled.
- Two plane landings daily at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago will be unsafe.
- 12 babies will be given to the wrong parents each day.
Given statistics like those, our slight lack of effort hardly seems like a big deal, does it? It is, if your standards are as high as they should be. And… never stop trying to exceed those standards.
Here’s an example to illustrate the point.
In ancient Rome, when the scaffolding was removed from a completed Roman arch, the law read that the Roman engineer who built the arch had to stand beneath it. The point was that if the arch came crashing down, he would experience the responsibility first hand. As a result, the Roman engineer knew that the quality of his work was crucial and would have a direct personal impact on his life.
During the hustle and bustle of this time and as you prepare for end-of-semester projects and exams, remember to give it all you’ve got and finish the year strong. Your children are depending on you. Pull out the Fuddlebrook book, It’s Only Water, where Bert has a bad day and takes for granted the wonderful gift of water, take a deep breath, and enjoy a story with your kiddos.
Bert learns a lesson about the importance of life-sustaining water, just like we may need to learn a lesson about the importance of being better than good enough.
After all, there is no substitute for quality. Good enough is simply not good enough.