To Fail To Plan Is To Plan To Fail

The above words from a Benjamin Franklin quote (see here) that I recently observed on a church marquee sign, implies that proper planning is one of the most important aspects of a successful life .... not only in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm as well (see here and here). Set goals cannot be realized until plans are set in place by which to achieve those goals (see here).

For example, plans must be made to arrive at doctor's appointments on time (this writer has had three doctor's appointments this month). If one fails to show up at a scheduled time, that individual will be penalized with some type of late fee, because to a busy doctor, time is money. A patient can't waste a doctor's time or money and expect him (or her) to be pleased.

When I substituted in our local school district's libraries, I had to plan on "how" I was going to present and teach the required curriculum for each class level that the librarian had planned for me to teach via her lesson plan notebook. To facilitate that goal, I wrote on a small piece of paper the names of teachers who were bringing their class to the library on whatever scheduled day; their time of arrival, their class grade level, and how many students were in each class (via a class roster maintained by the librarian).

In preparing the above information, I knew all of the teacher's last names (very important) when they entered the library with their class, their class level and home room designation, i.e., 1A, 2A 3B, 4C, etc. Organization and planning is a must when working in a library, because wasted time is time not spent in the learning process. Shortchanging both a student's time and learning experience is unacceptable in our educational system. Time is of the essence, because we have so little of it (see here), and it passes very rapidly (see here).

Knowing the above information was a necessity in order to allow enough time for teaching each class (30 minutes per class) as well as enough time for checking out books (15 minutes per class). If I had not planned the day's activities around the scheduled classes, I would have failed in my duties as a substitute librarian for our school district. As a result, the teachers would have been angry, the students would not have received the required curriculum instruction, and it's very possible that I would have been out of a substitute job.

Beloved, the bottom line is this: To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets