"Don't rest on your laurels." How many times have I, or you, heard that? My parents were fond of saying that to me for as long as I have memory and could figure out just what the word "laurel" meant. Once I realized that the basic meaning of "laurel" is "accomplishment" then I moved on to trying to understand what it meant to "rest" on them. After I figured out that, the rest was easy. Well, understanding it was easy, not resting on accomplishments is a bit more difficult, perhaps.
Which brings me to the umbrella thought in my head today: Just because someone does something "good" in recent days past, does that give that person a bye for multiple days to come?
This rationale for not doing the job was given to me recently. When I heard the individual say that she/he had not followed through on normal job-related tasks because of a recent accomplishment I thought to myself, "Poppycock!" What kind of reason is that for not doing your job?
Let's take, for instance, a surgeon who successfully completes a procedure on Monday (for argument's sake) at 9 a.m. but has a full surgical calendar the rest of the day and subsequent days thereafter. Does the surgeon's one successful operation give him or her license to cancel the other procedures that follow? I think not!
In the same vein, just because I presented a successful lesson plan, in my classroom, on Wednesday, does not mean that I can serve cake and candy while watching movies for every rehearsal time after that for a week or even a day. Nay, nay. Work must go on and momentum must be channeled. Just because I feel that I need or deserve "a break today" does not make it necessarily so.
No, laurels do not work as a chair or any other piece of furniture on which to recline, recuse, repose or re-charge. Laurels are there as a navigation tool alone and should be referenced only in terms of past accomplishments, not tickets for future accolades.
Ancora imaro
