Can You Follow Instructions? - See The Manual



                    Can you Read an Instruction Book?

 


 How are you at assembling furniture?

For myself - Once I know what I'm doing, I can do it quite fast.

But how are you, at following instructions?

Have you ever had to assemble some furniture with lots and lots of different parts?

Lots of components.  Different lengths and gauges of screws and bolts.

Spring washers and flat washers. Some dowels and lugs. I had this experience recently.

The first thing the instructions say is, make sure you have everything you'll need. Sort the items.

Then - read the booklet from start to finish.

So that you understand the steps and what each stage should look like.

If you had a set of instructions that said - ‘neglect to follow this to the letter and you'll fail’, but on the flip side said - ‘if you follow these instructions exactly, you'll have success’,.... Would you just flip through it or glance at them while you were watching your favorite show on TV?

Or would you find a quiet spot, read the instruction book from cover to cover, to get the overall concepts, and then once you understand them, go back to the start and read from the beginning again slowly?!!

 

It wouldn't be wise to just flip through it and say, - ‘That's OK. I'm just going to wing it from here’.

 No. You wouldn't say that. You want to succeed.

 You would read and follow carefully, every little instruction, taking note of every detail


My Experience


 

When we moved into our last house, we bought a new bed.

Now we had just moved house that day - it was late - all I wanted was a shower and bed.

 So, I glanced over the instructions.

 You know what's coming don't you!!??

 I missed a step.

 I got to the end. The bed looked fine - it wasn't tilted one way. It would have coped just as it was,...BUT….    I had one crucial bolt left over at the end. Which was to lock in a support piece right in the middle of the bed.

 

So,...already tired and frustrated, I had to back track. Disassemble some bits, (about half of it), trace my steps back, and find the step in the instructions where the bolt was inserted. And then redo all the other steps.

(Do you think I was popular with ‘she who must be obeyed’?)


Because I didn't follow the instructions to the letter. I made what was an already taxing day, an even longer and more frustrating day.


To succeed in life, we need to read and follow the instructions - to the letter. And yet God’s instructions are not more than we can cope with. (1 John 5:3) Not harder than we can manage

 

It does take discipline however, and we can't succeed by just glancing at the instructions occasionally.

 

If we follow the Bible's morals and principles and commandments, we do live a happier life.

 

We can just glance at some aspects, with the idea that ‘we’ve got it all sorted - we’ll be fine with what we know’, But the fact is - Man cannot successfully find his own way without guidance from above (Jeremiah 10:23)

 

So, if we want our lives to run more smoothly, and we don't want to be disassembling furniture all the time, so to speak - to correct our own mistakes - which only makes life even harder to cope with, then the best thing we can do, is to find a quiet spot without distractions, and read the instruction book with deep concentration. And then refer to the instructions often as we assemble our furniture. To check that we are doing it all correctly and that it looks as it should do, up to this point.

 

We all have the same goal. To reach the end with our furniture intact and looking like the instructions stated.

Some of our pieces of furniture look different to other people's furniture. But if we all assemble our own furniture correctly then we’ll all enjoy a nicely furnished home at the end of it.


Until next time - Have a great day and make every meeting special.

 

Fletch is an entrepreneur who has worked and trained in business and customer service for more than 30 years. He enjoys writing and delivering training on business relations and good customer service.

He always enjoys a good cup of coffee with friends.




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