Over Prepare

Over prepare. How many people over prepare? Most people under prepare. Most people try to prepare as little as possible and just get by. “How little can I prepare and still get away with it?” is the question most people appear to be asking themselves.

Have you ever finished a project, taken a test, given a speech, or presented material to your superiors, and after it was all said and done, thought to yourself, “Man, I wish I wouldn’t have spent so much time preparing”? I doubt that happens very often, but I wonder how many times in a week, or even how many times in a day, you have thought, “Man, I wish I would have prepared more for that.” Or, “why did I not spend more time preparing?!”

Has that happened to you? It sure has to me. And you know what? I’m kind of tired of those times. I’m fed up with them. I don’t want that to happen anymore. Under preparing has frustrated me much more than over preparing ever could.

I just watched an online video of leadership expert John Maxwell, and he said something to the effect of “Over prepare and go with the flow. It’s better than under preparing and trying to create a flow.”

I had a meeting today, and I felt slightly over prepared for the meeting. I wondered if I was taking the meeting and my role in it too seriously, but half-way through the meeting, I realized that I was indeed slightly over prepared and that realization was actually liberating. I had a firm grip on what was being covered and those I was leading would have a much better understanding of the subject matter because I was over prepared, and not under prepared.

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” Over prepare.