Continuity, Follow Through. All that Stuff.

It's late, I should be abed, but I just got home.  I thought about begging off for the day, but since I said I would write a blog every day during the month of June, I really can't avoid it.

See that's one of the things I've learned as I've gotten older.  If I say that I'm going to do something and I say it out loud, I will jump through crazy hoops to make it happen.  I've gotten stuck by too many people over the years who have great ideas, implement for a short period of time and then give up.  That is one of those highly annoying habits that many of us have ... no follow through.

When I catch myself acting that way, I just want to kick my butt.  I disappoint people, confuse them, show them that I have no continuity and all of that spells failure to me.

There was a small chuckle inside as I thought about the number of television shows that I've gotten involved with and somewhere in the first season, the network decides the show isn't worth their investment and it's gone.  A story line was being developed, characters were flourishing and it was gone.

I grew up with parents who followed through with their threats of punishment.  All it took was one time of mom pulling the car over to deal with me and I was fairly confident that she would do it again.  When I got old enough to sit with my friends in church ... in the back ... far away from my mom and further away from the pulpit where Dad was sitting, I was warned that Dad would have no issue embarrassing me if he caught me talking when I shouldn't.  Why did I believe he would do it?  Because this is the story he told me.

He was just a kid and was sitting in church with his buddies.  They started chatting and laughing with each other.  Dad ignored the stern looks that his father gave him from the pulpit until Grandpa stopped his sermon, and asked Frank Greenwood to please come down to the front pew and be seated until the service was over since he couldn't control his behavior.

Dad's embarrassment over that incident remained with him for years, but it had effectively curtailed his bad behavior in church and the tales of his punishment did the same for the three of us kids.  We were absolutely certain that Dad would follow through if we couldn't maintain a sense of decorum for a single hour.  The last thing I ever wanted to do was end up sheepishly walking that long, long aisle to the front pew.

When my parents told us they would do something, whether it was punishment for bad behavior or something positive in our world, we were always certain that they would follow through.  There was never a question.

I don't know that I'll ever be that steadfast - I forget things that I promise because I get too busy.  I have learned, however, to carry 3x5 cards to write things down and I use Evernote on my computers to help with the memory of things I promise to take care of.  Please don't remind me today of things I've forgotten to handle for you, though.  I'm too tired! :)