In high school, I stood out as a football player and decided to continue playing at a local junior college. My sophomore year, I came into training camp out of shape, and the first week was extremely difficult. I soon made the decision to quit football.
Not long after, I was talking to an uncle who played college baseball and was drafted by a professional team. He never reported to camp after pressure from his wife at the time. When I told him I had quit football, he paused, looked at the ground, then back at me and said, “You never get this time back.”
And so it goes with our time in the military. My office has received several new Airmen, both enlisted and officers. They’re all very young — in life and the Air Force. They feel a lot of pressure as they begin their time on active duty, but I know, as do so many veterans, time flies by without us noticing. I’ve encouraged them to not worry, and soon they’ll be experts.
We need to keep a perspective on time as we conduct daily business. Whether we’re a new Airman out of technical school, or a seasoned service member, how we deal with time will affect our workplace positively or negatively. A good leader once told me, “Organizations are never static. They are either getting better or getting worse. The energy you invest into the shop will largely determine which vector we’re on.”
It doesn’t matter the length of our assignment, our time in any organization is short and never static. We need to make our time and effort count. On either end of an assignment, we have to inprocess and outprocess. We have to train and learn our job. There’s probably a deployment in there, too. So, how much time do we have to make a difference in our organization? Not much really.
So, is your organization getting better or getting worse? If you don’t know the answer to the question, it’s probably getting worse. How are you spending your time? Take a moment to evaluate yourself and determine if you’re using your time wisely. The great thing about working to improve an organization is that you will improve and progress as an individual as well.
Keeping a good perspective on time will allow us to invest the energy needed to vector our organization on a path to improvement. If we don’t, before we know it, it will be time to PCS and we’ll look back and wonder what it was exactly that we accomplished. Time flies; we must make it count.
During the short time we have in an organization, we have to keep in mind that what we do matters and makes a difference. It makes a difference in the organization as a whole and individually. At any rank, we can set the tone in our workplace and make a difference to our organization and our wingmen. Our time in the military is short. Let’s make it count; we never get this time back.
Twitter
Facebook
Published by
In high school, I stood out as a football player and decided to continue playing at a local junior college. My sophomore year, I came into training camp out of shape, and the first week was extremely difficult. I soon made the decision to quit football.
Not long after, I was talking to an uncle who played college baseball and was drafted by a professional team. He never reported to camp after pressure from his wife at the time. When I told him I had quit football, he paused, looked at the ground, then back at me and said, “You never get this time back.”
And so it goes with our time in the military. My office has received several new Airmen, both enlisted and officers. They’re all very young — in life and the Air Force. They feel a lot of pressure as they begin their time on active duty, but I know, as do so many veterans, time flies by without us noticing. I’ve encouraged them to not worry, and soon they’ll be experts.
We need to keep a perspective on time as we conduct daily business. Whether we’re a new Airman out of technical school, or a seasoned service member, how we deal with time will affect our workplace positively or negatively. A good leader once told me, “Organizations are never static. They are either getting better or getting worse. The energy you invest into the shop will largely determine which vector we’re on.”
It doesn’t matter the length of our assignment, our time in any organization is short and never static. We need to make our time and effort count. On either end of an assignment, we have to inprocess and outprocess. We have to train and learn our job. There’s probably a deployment in there, too. So, how much time do we have to make a difference in our organization? Not much really.
So, is your organization getting better or getting worse? If you don’t know the answer to the question, it’s probably getting worse. How are you spending your time? Take a moment to evaluate yourself and determine if you’re using your time wisely. The great thing about working to improve an organization is that you will improve and progress as an individual as well.
Keeping a good perspective on time will allow us to invest the energy needed to vector our organization on a path to improvement. If we don’t, before we know it, it will be time to PCS and we’ll look back and wonder what it was exactly that we accomplished. Time flies; we must make it count.
During the short time we have in an organization, we have to keep in mind that what we do matters and makes a difference. It makes a difference in the organization as a whole and individually. At any rank, we can set the tone in our workplace and make a difference to our organization and our wingmen. Our time in the military is short. Let’s make it count; we never get this time back.