Thoroughly Satisfied

What does it mean to be thorough? It is defined as “carried through to completion, careful about detail, complete in all respects.”

Considering all that college coaches must accomplish these days with winning recruits and building team camaraderie, I often wonder what coaches think about the “Transfer Portal”.  A Student-athlete transferring schools is nothing new.  But kids placing their names in a database to “open-up” their opportunities to other schools is new.  An athlete can have legitimate reasons for wanting to transfer, but other times it is just because they don’t want to complete what they first started.  In today’s world of transfers, cancellations, and postponements, carrying out a responsibility to its completion is rare.

In every game we officiate, we should have a mindset of “thoroughness”—carrying our role to completion and being careful about detail. Officials that have not worked together in a crew should pay particular attention to details no matter the years of experience.  As officials work more games together, some communication, patterns, and tendencies become second nature to the crew.  Our individual responsibilities in crew meeting, uniform, pre and postgame, and obviously during the game, must be complete and detailed.  No cutting corners—the success of the crew depends on the individual detail.

Proverbs 13: 19—"Desire realized is sweet to the soul.”  When we thoroughly complete a game, we experience a feeling of satisfaction that does not even have to be expressed in words!  To further add to this proverb, Proverbs 13: 4 states “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat.”  Where does the desire to be complete and detailed truly come from? The desire comes from our soul.  It does not come from other people although other people can influence us.  True desire comes from within us.

Charles Swindoll stated in his devotion “Thoroughness” that “we need to move out of the thick ranks of the mediocre and join the ranks of excellence.” As an official, are you satisfied with average?  If you are resting in mediocrity, challenge yourself and your crew to be above average—to be thorough—to be complete in ALL respects.

The difference between something good and something great is ATTENTION TO DETAIL.

Charles R. Swindoll