I’ve probably mentioned this before but I actually have something of a life mission statement (how sick is that?): Provide the resources and environment to encourage and facilitate the ministry of others. I suppose, now that I think of it, I could spend an article or two dissecting what that statement means. And, for the record, I didn’t sit down with the intention to create a personal mission statement; it’s just something I came upon (with help from my wife) and it, well, it fits. Anyway, the basic point is that one of my major throughout-life goals is to help folks that have a vision and passion for doing some ‘good work’ to accomplish it. Again, that’s an article or two in itself.

Crap, I’m way off subject already. Reverse.

If one defines a goal of helping others achieve their goals, though, there is a tendency to, um, go to far. During a conversation with a friend a few weeks back, he mentioned that an organization he works with now has something like a two-month long training course for a two-year job. Of course, this is not on-the-job training. That happens later. Now, this could all be useful training, and there’s no doubt situations in which the training should even exceed the ‘actual work’, if you will. Here, I’m thinking: astronaut.

But I wonder if this is a situation where a group (the training organization) really wans to help others succeed, but has let the “helping” become an end to itself. It is very important to me that whatever I do in life, I avoid doing that: letting my work of helping others become more important to me than that those other folks achieve what they’ve set out to do.

I know there’s probably seven thousand fine lines there.

I think it must be important to always keep the end goal in mind, that is the goals of those I’m assisting (in whatever way). Without being stupid.