It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over!

By Rotarian Lynn H. Frisbie, Hawkinsville Rotary Club, District 6920

 

 

Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and manager, Yogi Berra, must surely be the most quoted and misquoted figure in athletic history.  He is credited with a number of humorous misstatements, some of which he made and others erroneously attributed to him because they sounded like Yogisms.  So many that one of his real quotes is “I really didn’t say everything I said.”  Yogisms,” like “malapropisms,” “Tom Swifties” and “Spoonerisms,” add humor to our discourse.

 

Yogi’s aphorisms are usually seen as being unintentionally funny.  His famous “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” was the title of his best selling book.  Other favorite “Yogisms” are “You better cut the pizza in four pieces. I'm not hungry enough to eat eight,”and “The future ain't what it used to be.”

 

Authors have attempted to apply “Yogism” to occupations as diverse as banking and advertising. They recognize the fact that his supposed misstatements contain truth and wisdom stated in an inverse way.  At first glance, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” is simply cute and nonsensical.  However, it could be understood that when one is presented with a “fork in the road,” one should not be indecisive.  His “The future ain't what it used to be.”, makes a lot of sense when you read it as an admonition that the future is always in a state of flux and predictions of the future are often off the mark.

 

Read these three quotes. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” “You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.” “If you don't set goals, you can't regret not reaching them.” Look at these and think about what he said as it relates to your club.  In his unique way, he is pointing out the importance of setting goals.  Kind of obvious advice is it not?  But, do we always heed it?  How much of our club’s activity is goal-driven versus habitually carrying on the standard routine? Rotarians might accept a lack of focus in their club that they would not find palatable in their own businesses or occupations.

 

Nearly everyone daydreams about the future, but daydreams in themselves are not very productive.   According to writer Gene Donohue, “The difference between a goal and a dream is the written word.”  He points out the need to write down goals. This helps clarify them, turning them from verbal generalizations into achievable objectives.  Goal setting can be the GPS of our progress.  We do not want to be like Yogi who once said, “We're lost, but we're making great time!”

 

Does your Rotary club have clearly stated goals, short term as well as long-term goals?  Are club activities developed to meet these goals?  Is there a point in time when progress on those goals is determined? Enough questions, already, but you see the point.  Without goals your club is apt to muddle along, realizing little of the club’s potential for good.  Poetically stated, members meet, greet and eat, then disperse for another week.

 

When developing goals, keep the following in mind.  Lofty sounding goals with no reasonable way of attaining them are just an exercise in rhetoric.  Goals should be clearly stated in such a manner that some action is expected.  “Support Youth Activities” does not demand any real action. ““Have at least 5 members participate in the school reading program monthly, during the school year,” prescribes an activity and an obvious method to measure success.

 

Remember Yogi’s statement, “If you don't set goals, you can't regret not reaching them.”  It would seem that there would be less to regret if all goals were not fully met, than if no goals were set and little or nothing was achieved.  It is not too late to set goals and move ahead with purpose.  Remember, “It ain’t over till it’s over!”