The Pursuit of Excellence & the Problem of Experience

In debriefing a recent project with various people, following through on the tasks that remain, and making plans for the future, I’ve run straight into the problem of experience.

It’s one thing to aim for “not making the same mistake twice” when you are a rank beginner, another to set such a goal when you have done something over and over again. In any given pursuit there seem to be a limited number of pitfalls. In some of my pursuits, I think I’m aware of just about all of them. I’m an analytical, problem-solving kind of person, after all; I think ahead.

When it comes down to it, you have to listen to the Spirit and turn it all over to God, right? You have to do your best to equip and encourage other people to do what’s best, and let the chips fall where they may. It does no good to over-correct for what went wrong last time, after all. But here's the rub - as things unfold, sometimes as a leader you have to be the one who steps in and goes the extra mile, and/or takes responsibility for what happened or didn’t happen.

By the grace of God, we don’t fall into every pit that’s out there. But it’s rare to fall into one and not recognize that I knew it was there and have probably been there before. I fight the belief that every time I tell myself “I knew that was going to happen!” means I was responsible for avoiding it.

So, there's a cost to sticking with the same kind of thing year after year rather than going someplace new and starting over. Sometimes, I just want to go back to the land of “I’ve never done this before!” though that can be scary and discouraging as well. In the end, I guess the things that seem like talent or experience are part of what I've been given to steward.

So, maybe nobody will feel sorry for the poor little rich girl here. 'Tis no matter, I seem to have enough self-pity to do this for myself!

And yet, so, so much to be grateful for - I can't stay in that melodramatic place for very long.

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Here's something I just snagged from a friend's Facebook page. Do you like it?

"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."

-- Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead