I say that a lot. Don’t put off until tomorrow that which you can do today!
But I do not always live it. My daughter brought home the cutest drawing the other day and I immediately brought it to my desk to scan it for eternity. Because I get distracted, and because I live like a pig, it got lost on my desk. I have made an unforgivable edit to the drawing. It now lives with a coffee stain. But has been moved to the scanner for protection and, if my Windows 98 box (which is attached to the scanner) actually boots, the document will be scanned shortly. (click the picture to read the notes)
Regarding other mantras. We speak them until we are blue in the face. "Don’t put it down; put it away." But the meaning is not fully realized until our children see us living our mantras. That means my desk and work space must become clean and organized and be that way in perpetuity. Yesterday Tommy gleefully told me that Blizzard Entertainment was hiring and that he met some of the requirements (like "must have played lots of WoW"). In preparation for his entry into the real world the high school is helping him see what kind of jobs are out there. He threw me off a little when Tommy said, "I hope I get to work at one of those programming desks that have papers all over the place and are real cluttered." I took pause! He’d just described my work environment as if it was a good thing. We discussed how being sloppy at an office would be detrimental to your job and negative to your co-workers. He also didn’t realize that working for Blizzard would probably mean moving to the West coast. I think yesterday was the first time he had actually put thought to the fact that working means getting out of the house. I must set a better example! What we do and say reflects through our children and carries into their lives.
While camping in the Okefenokee I said to one of the other leaders, "you don’t get what you don’t ask for" and we talked about mantras. I quipped that I was sure the children heard Charlie Brown noises when I spoke. Not two hours later the leader returned to me and said, "You know what Noah just said to me? ‘You don’t get what you don’t ask for.’" That dropped my jaw! What we do and say reflects through our children and carries into their lives. They are listening! They are paying attention.
