Growing up in a military household, my father used to get on all of us about how we needed to prepare ourselves for anything that comes in our life. He is the most organized, put together person I have ever seen. Even though he nowhere near perfect, one thing is true, my father has taught me a lot over the years.
One of the biggest and possibly my favorite lesson that I have learned is the 6 P’s:
Proper Preparation Prevents Pis-Poor Performance
What that means is, even for the little or big things that you need to get done or the dreams that you aspire to turn into reality, nothing beats getting yourself prepared for anything that comes your way. In that sense being prepared early on gives you a full analysis on how the situation will be.
Ex: Your next test. You know that this subject is not the easiest and winging it is not going to help you. So you use the 6 Ps. Organize yourself, break it down into the smallest of sections, and study way before the test. This will allow your mind to soak in all the correct information and now you are fully prepared for the test.
Same thing with pursuing your dreams. Prepare for what you know is going to happen. Study every single part of it. Sure there are going to things that throw you off and some things are going to happen that you cannot prepare for, but for the things that you can, go ahead and take the proper time to make sure that you understand them. You can’t walk into your dreams and expect everything that you asked for to fall in your lap. This is not some Disney Channel movie. This is real life and in real life, preparation, along with a few other things can take you to a greater length in life that you will never expect.
Last minute preps only work when it necessary. Ever notice that most of the time, when someone puts together something last minute, either it comes out ok, but you wanted it to look better or it comes out looking sloppy. We don’t need that type of sloppy work attached to us. So it’s best to prepare yourself early on and get the quality work done properly.