Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Always Reach A Little Higher
January 31, 2006
Based on a previous minute by George Denise
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

This minute has been done before, but it is one of my favorites, and is worth repeating. I'd like to have two scouts come up. One take a red marker and the other a blue. Now, I have taped some paper high on the wall. I'd like each of you to put a mark on the paper as high as you can. Ok, there. Everyone can see where you have put the marks.

Now, what we have found is that when you ask someone to do a little better, they usually can. So please take the pens again and try to make a mark higher than your previous mark. There, you both did it, you both did better the second time. Thanks, you can go and rejoin the group now.

What happened here? The first time I asked both scouts to make a mark "as high as they could". Were they not trying? Didn't they care? Well I beleive they did try, but this is just human nature and there are several lessons we can learn from this.

1) The first time they tried there was no goal - no mark to beat. This is why many times in life it is good to set goals for ourselves. Something out in the future that we will try to accomplish.

2) The second lesson is that of competition. The American system is built on competition. This is true not just with sports but with many other thigns. It gives us better student with better grades. It give us better products at cheaper prices. Our judical system is based on competition. Opposing lawyers take sides and debate a person's guilt or innocence. Competition is good.

3) Finally this exercise can serve to teach us all that even when we think we are doing our best, we can always do a little better. There is an old saying "Anything worth doing is worth doing well". We always need to evaluate our own efforts and ask ourselves if we are doing the very best we can.

Thanks for listening.