The Importance of Completing Task

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• The Importance of Completing a Task and Time Management

A couple of days ago, I received a negative counseling. For not completing, or

taking my military tasks seriously. When I signed my name on that dreaded line I

honestly didn’t think much of it. Just thought I was being given a hard time for no

reason. However, as I begun to write this essay I started to think differently. It all comes

down to the butterfly effect. Something so small and insignificant to me, something I

completely over looked by me being in a rush or just not caring; could be potentially

dangerous or fatal to one of my battle buddies. Kevin Michel once said from his book

Moving Through Parallel Worlds to Achieve Your Dreams “Small shifts in your thinking,

and small changes in your energy, can lead to massive alterations of your end result.”

Small changes in the way I think as a Soldier, small changes in my energy

toward others will have massive alterations to how my day goes. For example, if I don’t

take notes during the morning briefing I could possibly miss something. Meaning that a

piece of equipment won’t get the proper Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services

(PMCS.) Means more damage down the road, so when one of my battle buddies goes

to use the equipment, the mission is compromised due to my lack of ambition, energy,

and just sear laziness. Now, my battle buddies might not ever find out I was that Soldier

decided not to pay attention, and not due what I was told. However, that isn’t the point.

The point is Integrity and doing the right thing even when no one is looking. I somehow

managed to forget and ignore this army value.

• A wonderful example from history would be a man by the name of John Parker.

Officer John Parker was one of the first 150 police officers that were assigned to

guarding President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1856. John Parker not only

took his duty lightly when he arrived for his shift 3 hours late, but he decided that he

could slip away and invite someone else to have a drink with him across the street.

John ignored one of the most duty of his life. He vowed to protect the president, with his

life, yet he left him to have a few drinks. Something that he would never be able to live

down.

Unfortunately, John Parker thought that pushing a chair up against the door that

lead to the booth where the late Abraham Lincoln sat would be enough protection,

against anyone wanting to harm the 16

th

 president. As we all know today he was wrong.

As John Parker sat at the bar across the street sipping on some drink. John W. Booth

was also there. John W. Booth, was trying to drink up enough courage to do the awful

deed that he did fulfilled that night. John W. Parker noticed that the guard on shift

abandoned his post. He seized his opportunity to accomplish a dream that he had

dreamt for many nights. He walked across the street, removed the chair from the

stairwell that John Parker placed there. Walked up the stairwell and pulled the trigger.

Instead of aiding the president John Parker ignored his post again, and fled the area.

The man who vowed to protect and defend ran in a drunken mess away from the scene.

• John Parker ignored his post, abandoned all the values and morals that were

taught to him. All because of boredom, lack of energy, ambition, and sear laziness. His

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