Summer Breeze

Now, on to Fall

Re-entry after my break has been all-consuming. Despite the absence of Dear Leader, our team persists in making things happen. I’ve been running to catch up with them.

Above is a peek at the progress on our builds in Philmont (now completed) and the Rural Starter Home prototype Niverville (completion Spring 2025.)

One family is already occupying their home in Philmont, and a 2nd will follow soon.

More on our “Build Summer” activities can be found here.

For a small, resource-constrained non-profit, it is important to manage our capacity appropriately. One of the main principles that we operate our Habitat for Humanity affiliate by is to “make progress every day.” To me, that is the most effective way to set attainable goals, and achieve even stretch goals. And we have achieved many of the goals we set out in our Vision 2025 strategic plan.

As I wrote in a June 2023 post:

In his 2011 book “Great by Choice,” author Jim Collins describes how a slow, steady progression can be the path to sustained success. Collins told the story of the race to the South Pole in the early 20th century by two teams.

One team marched for 20-miles each day regardless of the conditions. They reached the Pole more than a month before their competitors.

The second team opted to march as far as they could on each day. If conditions were favorable they covered more ground; when poor they covered less or none at all. Sadly, they all perished just 10 miles short of their destination, and far behind the winners.

What does this teach us? That waiting for optimal conditions may be a foolish, even perilous choice. Just get going and keep going. And make your bed before you do.

Keep on keeping on, as the old saying goes. Dream your dreams, but make sure to make continuous rather than episodic progress towards them. You’ll go further in the long run.

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Now, Summer’s over, but the work will continue.

Given how well that works, I may even take some more time off!

Let’s build!