Every year, I get together with three guys to play in the Annual Bay Hills Classic. With exception of one in our party, we all are miserable at golf. And while the name might sound a tad fancy, the event is anything but. There is a good amount of beer drinking, cigar smoking, and tee shots into the trees. Regardless it’s a grand time of which we look forward to every year. Often times, one of us will hit a shot so poorly that it manages to only advance a few feet. The good golfer of the group has a saying that we use incessantly, “Forward Is Good”. While we use it mainly to playfully mock each other, the heart of the saying has a greater virtue. The saying was taught to my friend by his grandfather when he was just learning on how to play the game. My friends grandfather used it to encourage him that every shot closer was indeed closer that you were before. Forward is good.
Somehow that saying has found its way into other aspects of my life. Whether playing a bad game of golf or adding just a little bit more to a savings account, forward is good. Most recently, I find myself pondering these words in relation to my work.
Out of the places I’ve worked in my short lifetime, non have presented the challenges I’ve faced being a contractor for the US Govt. The agency I work for seems to be allergic to competency, efficiency, or ingenuity. Today seemed to be no exception. All of a sudden projects scheduled to take six months now had to be done by now, stat, asap…. Instead of set of documented approval processes, there are now 3. Not only that but the whole organization was going to realign. When or how is anyone’s guess.
For a while, I was just angry, upset with the situation and seemingly impossible tasks at hand. I thought grabbing the good ol resume and casting it out there to see if I could any bites. It wasn’t until I drove home that it dawned on me I have an incredible opportunity. It’s not every day you get asked to throw together and deploy a Continuation of Operations Plan within a couple of months time. Or deploy a dmz and public facing web application with no available infrastructure or support. Daunting and initially overwhelming…yes. Will I want to slam my heads through a wall at times? Counting on it. Is it doable? Yes. Beneficial? Yes
I generally believe that when faced with challenges in life, we can gird up our loins like a man or run away from them like sir robin. So tonight, I look at these projects and issues and think “Forward is Good”. I’m going to learn something and be a better man for it at the end of the day. So the next time your playing golf or rolling your eyes at management’s latest IT debacle, remember…Forward is Good.
Cheers,
Jer
