big

"If a job's worth doing,
it's worth doing well."

Do you remember hearing these wise words growing up? Quality is good. And yet in this season, I'm learning to embrace this variation on the theme:

"If a job's worth doing,
it's worth doing big."

In this context, a quality activity will attract numbers. Sometimes these numbers are bigger than I plan for. Sometimes the numbers freak me out, wear me out, make me want to sleep for a week. But I'm trying to embrace the big... even when it scares me.

Sixty kids in an English class? We'll manage. Teacher Scott putting his foot through the bamboo floor, breaking every stick of chalk in the box while writing on the dodgy board, attempting to engage the 11-14 year old hanging out the back window? All part of a job well done. Five hundred young people playing football every Sunday for three months? We'll try. I get there early, move construction materials from the corner of the field, scoop animal crap from two fields, check the ages of the players (prohibit kids who are too old from joining in), remind the referees of the modified rules for U13s, explain the word 'forfeit' when a team arrives 45 minutes late, keep an eye on the time for the referee and step in for coaches who can't make it to let players substitute so that everyone gets time to play.

Big has implications. Big allows many more opportunities for dozens of little things to give me a headache. But there's a momentum and an excitement in big too. So if it's worth doing...