Why don't we make 2010 the year of the "Law of the Farm". You ask - what pretail is the law of the farm? Well, simply put, the "Law of the Farm" is doing things in the correct order and not "rushing through them". This is another one of Stephen Covey's "Principals". You see, it works like this - in farming the farmer can't all of a sudden "wake up one day" late in the Spring and realize that he needs to get busy if he will have a Spring crop. He can't wake up on Monday morning and decide to till and turn over the soil and prepare it for planting, plant the seeds at noon, fertilize, water, and nurture them in the afternoon and expect to harvest them the crop on Tuesday morning. There are certain things that have to be done in the correct order and they take time, effort, and planning. Hence, the first three habits set the foundation for everything else. - 1-Be proactive, 2-Begin with the end in mind, and 3-Put first things first.
The farmer must be proactive and prepare and turn the soil in the early spring. Essentially, the farmer must "begin with the end in mind" - the end being that he wants to have a crop to cash in to support himself and his family. Putting first things first admonishes the farmer to do the farming in the correct order - the farmer just can't simply plant one day and harvest the next. It is a simultaneous combination of the first three habits that lead to a bountiful crop.
In real life, I have one friend in particular that always tries to "circumvent" the law of the farm. This friend does little "preplanning" or giving any thought to to "where he wants to go in life" and often times wakes up in a brave new world everyday. He is often very frustrated, mad, and at odds with the world when he runs into roadblocks and complications when he wakes up in the morning and decides to "plant the crop" and then learns that he can not "harvest the crop the next day". Rules, regulations, procedures, frustrate him to no end. Mind you, he is a very dear friend of mine, but it is often comical to watch the predicaments he gets himself into by not obeying the law of the farm.
I had the great pleasure of teaching undergraduate micro/macro economics at a university as an adjunct. You know - supply and demand curves and my favorite part being elasticity. It's an interesting picture of human characteristics, talents and traits in observing the students. Some students start at the first day keeping up with assignments, studying, asking meaningful questions and contributing to the discussions. At the other end of the extreme, there are the students that don't "crack a book" until the night before the exam and wonder whey they did so poorly - thinking they could violate the law of the farm and "cram it all in" in one night. Then there is the occasional unfortunate student that didn't crack a book or attend class all semester and right before the comprehensive final, the student would "plead" for mercy and "understanding" as to why they had done so poorly and "had to pass" the class. It instantly became "my fault" that some other "activity" coincided with the class time in the evenings and they just "couldn't attend class". There is no free ride under the law of the farm and the law can not be violated.
Interestingly, a good friend of mine who is a PhD (piled higher and deeper), illustrated the point recently. Students were given an opportunity to do an extra credit assignment - that was optional - voluntary - they didn't have to do it. Towards the end of the semester, the student came pleading to the professor for additional opportunities of "extra credit" as she had not done the assignment as she thought she could "get by" without it. Fortunately, my PhD friend did not violate the law of the farm. Under the law of the farm, there are no special considerations.
Yes, it's a tough cruel world out there.
So, let us make our resolution for this new beginning that we refer to as a "New Year" that we "Obey the Law of the Farm" and not try to cram the crops in...
See you on down the road...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment