The Below Article was Sent to me by my wife. I thought is was so good that I have placed in on my personal Blog page. I do not know the author but whom ever you are, thank you.
My wife taught me something yesterday. It’s not that she doesn’t often have something valuable to share, but I don’t always recognize or appreciate it.
We had eaten dinner, and settled down for some televised entertainment. During a commercial, she jumped up, hustled to the kitchen, and started cleaning up. I thought, “What, now?? We’re relaxing!” But, the water started running, and so did she. I was kinda amazed. Even with a glass or two of wine in her, she had her system down. Within the two-minute commercial break, she had the dishes rinsed and in the dishwasher, counters wiped, and coffee set to brew for the morning. I asked her, “How did you just do in two minutes what it takes me to do in 30”?” Her answer: “Practice. I have a system.” She didn’t go into a long explanation about her system. But, the next time she did the dishes, I watched. Dishes were rinsed and set in front of the dishwasher. Everything had its place, and there it went. One, two, three, and with a quick swipe of the counters (which I sometimes skip, only to regret later when I lay my arm across a puddle of syrup), she was done.
So what can I learn from this, and share with you? Trust me…I’m not going to go into the layers of my wife’s dishwashing system. But, with everything we do, we do it better with a system, and with practice. We know that, because it makes sense. But sometimes, things that seem so simple become a bigger burden then they should be simply because we don’t practice and apply the system that we know works.
I thought about that a little bit, and realized that we all know what we know from our own experience (and practice!), but we can’t just tell someone else how, and expect them to immediately get it. The layers of learning that I’ve grown to respect are “tell me”, “show me”, “let me practice”, and then apply! Applying what we’ve learned is the absolute most important element. That’s the only real way to gain a skill level that makes the lesson valuable! In order to become good at something, to make it a part of you, and do it well, you simply have to do it. A lot.
Those of us who have something to teach, whether we’re a facilitator, training coach, manager, or even a co-worker with experience, are somewhat limited. We can certainly tell. We can show. We can let you practice. It’s up to you to APPLY, and to be consistent, so you better achieve your goals, and see results.