Teamwork makes the Dream work

I don’t know about you but I have a hard time handing over the reigns when it comes to projects. I have an idea in my mind of how things should work out, how they should look, and how long it will take to accomplish said items. To be honest there have been times it has driven me completely bat crazy to have people help on projects even though they truly meant well and did a good job. I do admit I have very high standards that I set for myself and feel guilty trying to hold others to those same standards especially when they have no idea those standards exists. I have failed many times because I did not let others help and yes, I have learned from those experiences and give myself grace now.

Teamwork is very important, it teaches you to let go and allow other people on the team do what they do best. When my friend and I took over the children’s ministry program (see my blog post “This is me, and why you should care“) at the church we were attending it needed a lot of help. It was a bit unorganized, there were about 10 families that consistently came to the Sunday morning children programs and about that many for the midweek children’s programs. I knew that I could do the list making, the organizing of classrooms, buying the supplies and such but deep down I knew that even though I knew I could be creative, my friend Austyn was the creative juice of the team. That is why we worked so well though, I knew my part and she knew hers and we just clicked when it came to working together. I am so glad I didn’t try and save the program by myself. We always prayed about the ideas we had and if it didn’t sit right we wouldn’t do it. By the time we resigned our positions we had quadrupled the amount of kids at the mid- week programs and had done family events at the church that brought in families from all over the community. When I tried to do Austyn’s job it just didn’t work and vice versa with her. We found what worked and we stuck with it, and we made sure to have fun along the way.

Teamwork comes in all shapes and sizes. When families work together to make a house a home, that is teamwork. When a husband stays home with the kids so that his wife can go do shopping, that is teamwork. When coworkers band together to help each other get through the day, that is teamwork. I love that I work with a great group of people. We all come from different walks of life, we all have our problems. Once at work the animals become our first priority, this is not to say we don’t have fun together. The day and life of a vet tech can be very stressful. A day can consist of surgeries, lab work, cute puppies, cats with abscesses, unstable dogs that make it their goal to take a chunk out of your hand, vaccine appointments, feral cats that are “so calm and lovable at home” and so much more. To know that the team looks out for each other and will jump in to help makes crazy days bearable. To know that you can laugh, joke and tease each other makes the day fun. There are times where if you don’t laugh you might just cry, so you might as well find that reason to laugh.

Teamwork can create competition. This is a most excellent thing! Think about it, if you are on a soccer team, or baseball team whatever team it is, if there isn’t a healthy dose of competition within the team the team isn’t succeeding because the individuals are not challenging themselves to be better. I love to workout on my own, I can challenge myself but let me tell you, if someone challenges me and says they will do the challenge alongside me, it’s like a switch turns on and I push myself so much more. This is the same for the other person. My sister and I have noticed this when we team up to exercise more. I love to compete against her, but I also love to encourage her and she does the same for me. A couple of years ago my sister invited me to go to Orange Theory with her. I thought sure no problem, I work out I run/walk everyday, I can do this. So the idea behind Orange Theory is to get your heart rate up to 120 bpm while doing strength/cardio workouts. I think my sister was a little bit a glutton for punishment because the class she usually went to was at 5:30am which meant we had to be up even earlier to be there on time, but I was ready. I knew deep down I would have fun, I would do my best to keep up with my sister and that there was a very slight chance I could beat her on how I did. With all of this being said, I survived the class, and I walk out of the class barely, whereas my sister walked out of the class ready for the day and proved it by walking two doors down to get a drink from Starbucks. Let’s just say that day pushed me to work harder in my workouts for two reasons; if my sister did so well at it I knew I could too and and I wanted to feel like she felt after that class.

One last story on teamwork, over spring break my kids went to visit the grandparents. They had been working on a large yard project that was taking a while to get done. Some trees and shrubs had to come out, rocks needed to be moved and dirt needed to be relocated. They could do it on their own, but my husband and kids offered to help and what would have taken the two of them a week plus to do was done in about half the time. Banding together really does made the job go quicker. In Ecclesiastes 4:12 it even talks about how a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Working together means helping each other.

I still still struggle at times to ask for help, and I really do like to do certain things by myself. I admit though, I have had more fun doing tasks and jobs while being in a team environment. It is not always easy but there is something so refreshing knowing that you can do your best work because others on the team are doing their best work as well. If you want to have a bit of healthy competition ask a friend to workout with you, if there ends up being some trash talk (all in fun) that will just fuel the fire and push you to work harder, believe me it works, it took a day plus to walk normally after than Orange Theory class. Until next time:

Competition is good….as long as it is healthy. It’s what makes one strive to be better

Chistine Lahti

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much

Helen Keller