‘Do it right the first time.’
The one piece of advice I hated because I heard it every day it seemed.
My dad hammered this into me as a child and I hated it because usually whatever I was doing was done wrong in his eyes. For example, dishes, Every day household chores were regulated to us three younger kids to be taken care of before our parents got home [mom from work and dad from the bar after work]. He most times as not was sorting through some anger issues fueled by Windsor’s and Wiedemann’s draft.
So after a meal of intense bitching from him we would clear the table and immediately start the dishes, taking turns who washed and dried them, no leaving them to air dry no sir!
Dad would sit at the table drinking and waiting for a reason to give us hell. He would randomly tell us to hand him a dish and inspect it for cleanliness and if he found any reason to reject it as not being clean the following Saturday we would spend the morning washing every dish in the house including dishes never used but wrapped up and in storage.
After he died in 1974 I was a teenager and it was only mom and me left at home. She was an angel [another post, another day] and rarely did I hear this anymore but she would slip it in when she thought it was relevant. Over the years I came to realize this was an important rule of thumb to live by and it is something I still believe in deeply.
Not only does it keep me from repeating actions, it also provides a sense of accomplishment and pride knowing it was done correctly the first time. Of course not everything is done right the first time [example] my book lol, it is taking many tries but when done it will be right.
Have a great day today and try to do it right the first time around because that is all we get.
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