The other day I watched a coach teaching a young girl how to bat. One after another he placed balls onto a stand and had her hit them into a net. He gave her instruction and then did it again. She was pretty good, but had a tendency to hit to the right. She was standing correctly, but I thought, “If she moves just a step to her right, she’d get behind the ball and hit it correctly.” Then it occurred to me that she wouldn’t be hitting correctly. She’d be hitting the ball where it needed to go, but her stance would be off and she’d be compensating for a bad form. Instead the coach showed her how to reach further around the ball so that she’d hit it correctly.
This observation caused me to think, “How often do we compensate for errors in ourselves, our surroundings, or lives instead of correcting the error?” My father used to preach ad infinitum, “If you’re going to do it, do it right.” I hated hearing that. So often I wanted to cheat. And, sometimes I still do, but it never works.
For example, it was easy to put a wooden match into the hole in my door jam and replace the screw. I didn’t want to go downstairs and get the wood putty, let it dry, then do it later. I compensated. Of course, it never really worked quite right, and 6 months later the screw was loose and I had to do the whole task again.
It was easier at the time to not make a fuss about the fungus growing in my townhouse grass. I didn’t want to take the time or look like a complainer. I could justify my position by saying,” I pay Association dues and I’d rather not have to get involved with this.” Now most of the grass has disappear and the Association is going to have to have it dug up and reside. Maybe I would have seemed like a complainer, or not. In any case, through compensatory negligence the fungus destroyed the lawn.
It’s tempting to compensate on personal growth issues, as well. I was upset with something my husband had done last week. I didn’t want to discuss it with him, because I thought he would get angry. I was tempted to leave the house and spend the day by myself, rather than face the situation. I realized that I would be cheating myself and my husband, and depriving us of time together. So, I told him in the best way I could about my feelings. And using our communication skills (which we’ve painstakingly worked on) we were able to work through the issue. We also came to a stronger mutual understanding of not only the issue, but of each other.
So, there you have it Dad, we did it right. And, you were right. Thanks.
