A farmer purchased an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse was falling apart, and the fences were broken down. During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!" A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Lo and behold, it's a completely different place. The farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there is plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows. "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!" "Yes, reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!"
Not 'til the loom is silent And the shuttles cease to fly Will God unfold the pattern, And explain the reason why. The dark threads were as needful In the skillful weaver's hand, As the threads of Gold and Silver In the pattern that He planned.
It has been written: To the cynic the body is no more than a tenement of clay. To the poet, a palace of the soul. To the physician, an all too ailing hulk. The psychiatrist sees it as a housing for the mind and personality. The geneticist sees it as a perpetuation of its own kind. The biologist sees it as an organism which can alter the future as a result of the experience of the past. The anthropologist sees it as an accumulation of culture. Others have viewed the body as essentially just a machine, a concept that sometimes appeals and sometimes appalls. The English satirist Samuel Butler dismissed his fellow men as but "a pair of pincers set over a bellows and a stew pan and the whole thing fixed upon stilts." But to the more reverent, the bodily mechanism is a masterpiece of precise planning-a delicate and complex apparatus whose various components work as a unit to achieve such diverse feats as scaling a mountain top, building a bridge or composing a symphony.
Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes.
The year, 1972, was a memory, like it or not. The funny thing is, looking back now, what I remember most is how it ended. So maybe that New Years Eve 1972, didn't work out exactly like we had planned. There was heartbreak we didn't anticipate and events we couldn't have imagined. Still, it wasn't all bad. So maybe there was a message in it all. The future was calling us and no matter what, there was no turning back now.
A good follow-through is just as important in management as it is in bowling, tennis, or golf. Follow-through is the bridge between good planning and good results
You may have great plans and may be impatient to carry them out now. Possibly you can. We usually can do far more than we have believed. But possibly the best time has not arrived and the best place selected. Then be patient while you persevere. Great things require time, and the important projects must pass through many stages. However, if you are determined to accomplish what you have in mind, and do your utmost as well as give yourself the required time, you will certainly do it. All things come to him who waits patiently while he works efficiently.
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