Practice what you preach....

Do you load your dishwasher from the front or the back? Do you even think about it? Do you have a preference?

I grew up loading from the back. That way, when it was full, it was easier to find room for things, you didn't have to pull out the heavy rack all the way to make space for a plate or dish. Most importantly, it secured even distribution across the rack for the silverware. Ever noticed how if you load from front, or just crack it open to toss a knife or fork in they all wind up in the same bucket? And then they don't really get clean.

It drives me crazy to open the dishwasher and see all the forks and knives in the first bucket (I know what you're thinking - she should be happy that her husband even knows where the dishwasher is - well, that's not the point of my story) - and even more crazy to be emptying it when it's clean just to put some pieces back in to be re-run. Such a waste.

Guess what I did the other day?

I put a knife in the front. Just cracked the door open and dropped it in. Damnit. I hate when I do it, too. Makes it real hard to complain about it if I'm a culprit, too. And fortunately Vince was out of town, so he didn't hear me go "Dangit, Anne. Practice what you preach."

How true this is for all things. Especially in business. I'm real good at talking the talk. I mean REAL good at talking the talk. But I don't always walk the walk. It's hard to. It takes time to. And in a world where we're constantly pulled in different directions and we have more on our plates than ever, that's even harder to do.

For me, the realization that I don't always do what I preach is step 1. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying.....I'm not acknowledging it's a problem (yet), just acknowledging that I don't always do it. So, I'm not about to start practicing what I preach on everything. But, I am going to start thinking about catching myself when I realize I do it. And calling myself out on it.

Because why don't you practice what you preach? A couple of reasons I can think of:

- Rules don't apply to you
- You're lazy
- What you preach doesn't work
- It sounds good in theory, but hard to execute

None of those reasons are good ones. If you're not practicing what you preach, why not? And how can you fix it?

So, after cursing myself, I reopened the dishwasher, took out the knife, and put it in an empty holder in the back. Ah. Satisfaction.