Preparation and Experience

Proverbs 22:29New King James Version (NKJV)

Do you see a man who excels in his work?

He will stand before kings;

He will not stand before unknown men.

I have been thinking about preparation and experience lately, I have decided that if I had to choose between being prepared, talented, smarter, skilled, or posses natural ability that I would choose to be prepared. I value talent, skills, knowledge, and natural ability, but I've seen proper preparation beat all of them time and time again. Over the past few months on AV gigs, I have been asked to "show someone what I did" because I got a more desired result, seemingly effortlessly.

I would try my best but I knew this was a pointless exercise. I was able to get the desired result because I had been practicing and preparing for years, I spent years learning, years experimenting, years troubleshooting, years failing, failing a LOT,  years reading, years going to seminars, being pushed out of the way so someone else could fix what I messed up, all of this prepared me so that when I approached certain problematic situations, I would be able to solve them quickly.

Sure I can show someone what I did, but why it works and how I knew to do this in that situation cannot be shown so quickly. Showing them what I did does not prepare them to identify why the problem happened, why my actions solved it, or what to do if the first set of actions do not work.

I think about this not just for AV, but for pastors, bankers, lawyers, doctors, to excel at any profession, one must be diligent in their work.

Procrastination and Reading

So I just finished reading a book the other day. God With Us by Mark Allen Powell. Very strong theologian in my limited experience and I am proud that I finished the book, the only problem is I was supposed to finish reading it for my New Testament I class last fall (two semesters ago). I procrastinated in the reading when it was assigned for class and fortunately, the work was not heavily included in the Midterm or Final, but  would have helped me participate in lectures. Procrastination got the best of me, but my desire to not quit, made me keep the book, and finally get around to finish it in between everything else I have going on. I don't want to make excuses, I am busy, but everything I am doing, or supposed to be doing is adding value to my life so I should find a way to make it happen. Completing the assigned readings for my classes prepares me for class lectures, sermons, and speaking engagements. They also turn my ramblings into something coherent one day as a theologian. I must do better at completing the readings and I am already doing so.

Some of the ways I have dealt with procrastination is learning to say no. Most of my procrastination comes from the fact that I say yes to a bunch of things and end up not doing any of them. Spreading myself too thin means that no task gets enough attention to complete on time and sometimes, at all. Learning to commit to a schedule also helps with procrastination, if I deal with certain matters on a set schedule they will get completed in a timely matter. Also learning to make decisions quickly. Some tasks pile up because when the information came to me, I sat it down and said I will deal with it later, only later did not come. Making quicker decisions, learning to say no, and adhering to a schedule have helped me deal with procrastination.