Wielding the Shovel Comes First

When I first joined Boy Scouts, I was surprised at all the manual labor required during the various service projects throughout the year. In fact, most weekends involved some sort of digging, walking door to door, or teaching activity to give back to the community. The hard work taught me several valuable lessons, but I can still remember wishing I could lead instead of doing the work. At the time, I thought that leadership was an easy concept that anyone could master.

After my first several months in Scouting, I was eventually given my first opportunity to lead. I was given the chance to lead my own patrol of scouts on a camping trip and ensure that all tents, cooking items, and campers were taken care of. More importantly, I was expected to lead my peers when it came to tasks like setting up and cleaning up our campsite. Finally, I thought, I could simply lead and not have to get my hands as dirty as normal.

I could not have been more incorrect. Especially as a young scout, it was difficult to get my peers to listen to me because they only saw me as their friend. In addition, I often had to grab a hammer myself and show the other scouts how I wanted certain stakes to be placed in the ground. Almost every aspect of the camping trip required my assistance in some way where I had to lead by example. Leadership was not as easy as I once thought. In fact, leading a group was much harder than just picking up the shovel and doing the dirty work.

As I eventually reached the initial planning of my Eagle Scout project in 10th grade, the massive amount of communicating, coordinating, and leading really began to make me reminisce. Less than a few years prior, I thought leadership was the easy part; where someone was just getting out of work to bark orders. Now, I finally understood the truth. I had to really wield the shovel firsthand to understand what it means to lead. In addition, I now have a much stronger appreciation for leadership and the incredible amount of energy and focus it takes to successfully encourage others.

In life, I hope to carry this concept forward by being thankful for the opportunities to grab a shovel and really do the dirty work. In the end, I know that hard work pays off because it allows a higher quality of leadership to develop. A greater appreciation for the components of teamwork allows me to truly see that you get out what you put in, and grabbing that shovel is the best thing you can do to overcome future obstacles.

Image Credits (in order of appearance):

Image provided by nist6dh
Image provided by Vienze Ziction