The next VALOR seminar starts about 12 hours from the time I am writing this. (which may explain the sudden rash of blog posts recently…) It is nearly the middle of May, and – to review – commercial production agriculture is what I do. And in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, May is the month that everything (it seems) needs to get done, and NOW! I knew that this particular seminar was going to be tough to pull off when I started the program, but as April unfolded, it seemed that all was going to fall into place according to plan, and 5 days away in May might actually not be that big a deal after all.
The weather must chuckle inwardly on those occasions when we think we have it all worked out….
So today there remained 219 things left on the to do list, and time to get about….15 done. A few of those tasks were somewhat time critical, as they needed to fit into other people’s schedules as well. And so it was, as I pulled into one of my suppliers this afternoon, an hour later than planned, and 11 minutes after they closed the gates.
Graciously, they tolerated the inconvenience and filled my truck as I apologized several times for my tardiness. As we were nearly done, I was asked the question: “What do you think of the VALOR program? Is it worth it?” (a paraphrase) It seemed that he has someone in mind as a possible candidate for the next VALOR class and wondered if it would be a good fit.
In the movies, I would have jumped into my “How VALOR has changed my life” speech, highlighting the many areas of personal and professional development that we have touched on to-date, and how it appeared that thus far we have been laying the groundwork so that the second half of the program could build exponentially on this base knowledge.
As it was, I was tired, had a million things on my mind, and probably blathered on rather incoherently about some of the activities we had participated in, the places we’ve been, and small things like that, though I did strongly recommend participation in the program, because, yeah…its worth the effort. And then I was off…
So….self….is it worth it? Do you really believe that? How do you know?
I know because, given the situation as it is currently, the decision I have to make on where to physically be these next five days would not even register a second thought for nearly any other event. But…this is a VALOR seminar….The decision is difficult…. quite…
What are you going to choose?
I guess we will see….
(BeanCrusher is Ian Heatwole. Learn about him here, or follow him here or here just because.)
valeadersor.com 