In yesterday’s post, I introduced John Maxwell’s four possible scenarios when it comes to timing and a leader introducing new ideas: a wrong idea at the wrong time equals disaster; a wrong idea at the right time is a mistake; a right idea at the wrong time equals non-acceptance; and a right idea at the right time equals success. Today, let’s take a look at that paradigm in our lives when it comes to something as simple as the timing of taking a vacation. Nancy and I got home on Monday evening after five days away on vacation. While the timing had been good for taking five days away from work, when I went out to the yard to check on the strawberries and the weeds–yes, to check on the weeds–I realized that our timing had not been the best for going away for five days from home. When we left last Wednesday afternoon, I knew the strawberries were getting ripe and that the weed situation needed attention in our blueberry enclosure and more so in our raspberry patch, in fact the raspberry patch had been next on my weeding schedule.
You may be thinking what does this have to do with leadership and timing? Everything! In last Saturday’s post titled The Importance of Rest, I noted the importance of taking time away on a regular basis for rest and renewal. Vacation is definitely part of that. While everyone receives differing amounts of vacation from their employers, it’s important to use whatever time we have available in our overall plan of rest and renewal, and to do so when the timing is the best for us. Nancy and I needed to visit our daughters, and we needed some time away. Since June 8-13 included Abby’s birthday (Abby is our older daughter) and Emmy (Emmy is our younger daughter) had recently moved to South Carolina, we thought it would be a good time to visit them, and since it was a good time for us to be away from our work at the church we went.
As I walked out to the strawberry, raspberry and blueberry patches I realized that our timing may NOT have been the best overall timing for a vacation. Nancy and I gave up on growing a big vegetable garden a couple of years ago, because I tend to take mission trips in the middle of the summer and when I come back the weeds have usually taken over the garden. Even at other times throughout the summer, we just can’t commit the time necessary to keep a garden doing well. Since then we have focused on our fruit bushes and a few apple trees. For example, I built a blueberry enclosure a couple summers ago and we were amazed to see the increase in the yield of the blueberry bushes once the birds couldn’t eat most of the berries. We planted strawberries outside the perimeter of the enclosure, and a handful of raspberry bushes given to us by some friends eight years ago have multiplied into a sizable raspberry patch.
When I walked out to take a look at each of them on Monday evening, the weeds were taller than the raspberry bushes. (Obviously, that didn’t happen in five days, since the raspberry bushes are three to four feet tall!) We have weeds about 6-10 inches tall throughout the blueberry enclosure. (No big deal, since I can clear those in about an hour.) But the strawberries had mostly ripened past the point of being useable or were bug infested. (That could have been avoided had we been home.) I told Nancy that June 8-13 is NOT the best timing for going on vacation from a standpoint of our fruit trees and bushes. I have been going out in the mornings on Mondays through Saturdays to pull weeds (in lieu of working out) and listen to my Bible on YouVersion, and then books on Audible for about an hour to an hour and a half at sunrise. By being away from June 8-13, I missed out on five to ten hours of pulling weeds. Had I been home the raspberry patch would have been weed free, since it was next on my list to weed when we left, as would the blueberries. In addition, I had staked up one of our apple trees, which has a weaker root system for some reason, and one of the stakes had broken while we were away, so the apple tree was leaning at a 45 degree angle. I would’ve caught that sooner had I been home. AND Nancy and I would have had fresh strawberries to eat at least three days during that time!
So what am I saying, that it was a bad idea to go on vacation? No, I’m saying it wasn’t the best timing to go on vacation. Had we gone a couple of weeks sooner, the strawberries would not have been ready to eat while we were gone, since that is a short window of time–basically the first two to three weeks in June. The weeds would still have been growing, but I would’ve just cleared the blueberry area of weeds, and the weeds around the raspberries would have been small, because of my “schedule” for weeding. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I am extroverted, intuitive and spontaneous, so good timing isn’t a natural strength for me. In order to be better at it I need help from others AND I need to take better notes. Vacations and retreats are important–I would say vital–to a leader’s overall health and well-being. Good timing for taking them means more effective leadership over the long haul. While my goal is not to turn us all into obsessive-compulsive maniacs when it comes to timing in life, I am finally realizing at the age of 59 that good timing is a vital part of good leadership. Whether it’s when to go on vacation, or how to plan my work schedule, or how often I need to invest time in being with Nancy, knowing the best times to carry out each will mean better timing and good ideas carried out at the right time equal success!
Here’s to planning better so our timing will be better, so we will lead better–today!