Looking back, it seemed such an easy job. All I had to do was complete my homework and turn it in. I had no other obligations. I didn’t have a job, nor did I have a side hustle. After all, I was in third grade.
I had plenty of motivation. I am a firstborn son and very self-conscious. I yearn to do the right thing and do it well. I feared my third-grade teacher because she was a yeller. I didn’t want to get on her bad side. Yet, somehow I forgot to do my homework that day. I had one job and I didn’t do it. I remember the yelling. I had to stay in the class at recess time. What was I thinking?
Now I know why I didn’t do my homework. I reasoned there was nothing I could do to please my teacher. In fact, I was sure she expected me to mess up. So I delivered and didn’t disappoint her.
Frequently, I’ve heard the phrase, you had one job… as a joke. A seemingly simple job can be messed up. It may appear to others that a person had only one task to do, while it may have been one in a dozen that day. What seems obvious in hindsight may not have been so when the work was done. If a supervisor expects a direct-report to mess up, they frequently don’t disappoint.
I had one job in third-grade and I didn’t do it that day. I learned my lesson and got my homework completed after that. However, it took years for me to see myself as a good student and to do the work because I wanted to, not because I feared some wrath. I was motivated by fear, not by the enjoyment of learning something new.
Expect the best in people today. Sure, they may disappoint and there may be times when we wonder what they were thinking. But it is better to expect the best and get disappointed once in a while than expect the worst and get it every time.
