Don’t Do a Half-Asked Job!

At the risk of being a bit self-exposing, I’ve gotta share this story, not only because I love it, but because of the lesson it contains coming at you directly from my daughter who was about 12 years old at the time. 

As parents and as people we have to choose our words carefully right? A time and a place exists for certain words with certain people. Some people are fine with swearing around their kids and although I don’t promote it, I sometimes slip. 🙂

In the Spring of 2020 my wife decided she wanted to get chickens. We got online, ordered a chicken coop and we got chickens. We put them on the side of the house and built an entire chicken run out of PVC pipe and chicken wire. The side of the house was dirt, so when it rained, the little muddy feet that were taking care of the chickens would bring mud right back into the house. 

One Saturday morning we made the decision to put in stepping stones to hopefully eliminate/reduce the issue. My oldest daughter, Jenna, who was 12 years old at the time was out working with me. We were placing the second to last stepping stone when she stopped, stood up and looked closely at the work we had done so far. Her gaze came back to me and I watched a whirlwind of intense thoughts forming. She then says to me, “We need to do more back here. We need to get bark and fill this entire area in around the stepping stones and make it look finished and really nice!”

As I sat and absorbed the moment, watching her maturing desire to take this project to the next level, she continued to speak saying, “Dad, we can’t do a half-asked job!” I responded “Did you just say half-ASKED job?” she responded, “Yes! You know how you always say DON’T DO A HALF-ASKED JOB?!” I laughed as she continued, “You know, only doing half of what you were asked to do! 

The Lesson

People, listen to me now. Look around. Like it or not the performance bar across the board is currently pretty low. We unfortunately see A LOT of half-asked jobs getting done all around us everyday. The good news is that this gives each of us a HUGE opportunity to stand out simply by doing a FULL-asked job! 

Go hard. Go hustle. Don’t ever do a half-asked job.