Diligence

If we practice diligence in everything we do, we will avoid causing ourselves additional problems and pain.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

John  Wooden

I want to preface this post by saying, I am not writing this for sympathy – instead this is an object lesson for diligence.

My wife and I are on a “diet” of sorts, we are actually changing our eating patterns, but twice a month, we allow ourselves to go a little off the rails as it were, and splurge: Friday was that day.

I left my “Brick and Mortar” for lunch to go to one of my favorite eating spots. I enjoy Mexican food, and so there is this semi fast food restaurant near where I work, which I enjoy frequenting.

I hopped on my bike, and headed out for the restaurant and as I was crossing traffic, my bike lurched forward, and I fell off my bike in traffic, and hurt my foot.

I got up, and started for the side of the road, and noticed the nuts that hold my wheels on were loose; I do maintenance on my bike once a week and I make sure everything is secure and in working order, and I usually check my bike, but that check is done first thing in the morning. Friday, I realized my diligence should have extended to every time I get on my bike. 

Now it is unclear if someone loosened the nuts on my bike, or if some magnetic gravitational force loosened the tightened nuts on the wheels: The point is I need to check each time I get on my bike, so I don’t have an accident.

When we write our blogs, an article for a client, or letters to our friends; we should remember that we are writers, and we are held to a higher standard for our writing. In other words we need to be diligent.

So many times, when I read a blog from a new blogger, or even from a seasoned veteran, I see glaring mistakes: Sometimes looking back on my own work I see glaring mistakes. 

The point is we must be clear in our translation of thought to page, and it should be… no it must be void of errors.

We cannot and must not become lax in our writing, because as writers we are expected to communicate efficiently.

Look at what you create with a critical eye, look at it fresh. I have to admit, I write a post a day or two in advance, I then read over the post and save it. I come back to it an hour before I post (sometimes a half hour) and I read it again. After I put it in the blog, before I post it, I read it aloud again just to make sure there is clarity of thought: Then I publish it.

How can you be diligent in your work? What works for you? Share in the comment section, because I enjoy reading from my readers and learning what they do. Everyone has something to offer.