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Do your best
In an earlier post, I wrote about cuboree – a camp for Victorian cubs and leaders and the wind storm that hit the camp.
When they joins cubs, each child makes a promise which starts “On my honour, I promise to do my best” – and doing their best is one of the key principles we use to encourage and develop the cubs. Every week, the cubs also reaffirm their promise to do their best.
The cyclone that hit during cuboree gave the cubs (and their leaders!) a challenging afternoon as they were kept indoors under cramped conditions.
Leaders did their best to keep the cubs occupied – in the marquee I was in we found pencils and paper, folded paper planes, sang songs, told jokes and played a DVD as part of keeping everyone busy and happy. Leaders also did their best to keep fear away form the cubs by managing the risks for them and protecting them as much as possible – a number of times I saw leaders leaning over cubs to protect them from falling debris, and leaders escorted children who needed toilets rather than letting them face danger alone.
Camp cooks did their best to provide nutritious and interesting snacks and meals, despite lack of power and/or gas to cook with.
The police did their best to keep us safe and arrange for the most dangerous trees/branches ot be dealt with.
Camp organisers did their best to keep us and families informed, everyone safe and accounted for, and to get some people home early as required.
But above all, we all were so proud to see the cubs do their best in trying circumstances.
Yes, cubs did ask “will we be in here much longer? when can we go outside? where will we sleep tonight?” and similar questions, but I did not hear one complaint from them. The cubs devised their own games and activities, moved around and spoke to cubs from other packs and places (they found it a great opportunity for badge swapping!) and did whatever was asked of them. They even queued for toilets trips without making a fuss. Sitting on the ground eating salad rolls for dinner didnt even raise a complaint.
The cub’s behaviour made difficult circumstances bearable and we were all proud of them. It was also inspirational to see them behave so well – it made it easier for us to do our best, too.
Next time you feel like doing ‘good enough’ in your business, take a moment to think about those cubs and ask yourself if you are dong your best in the circumstances or not – and what you will do about it if the answer is no.
Back from cuboree!
At the end of March, I wrote about joining 4,500 scouting people at the 5th Victorian Cuboree. I’ve been back home for a bit over a week now and am still exhausted from it, but figured it was time to report back!
The camp was a lot of fun – we were busy with activities all day and entertainment at night, lots of fun and walking around in the bush (well, the bush with lots of people and tents anyway!) We arrived on the Monday and came home (late) on the Friday.
We had some extra excitement with massive storms on the Wednesday – the worst to hit Victoria I heard, with winds hitting 130kms an hour! We were in the area of Victoria worst hit so we certainly were aware of the storm, lol. We spent nearly 8 hours in a strong marquee (rated to 90 km winds) with over 700 cubs and leaders, plus support staff – the kids coped with it really well which made the experience manageable. As leaders, we were really proud of how the cubs behaved well and accepted the limitations forced upon us – they lived up to their honour and promise of doing their best. In our pack, we had one tent damaged beyond use and two tents we considered at risk from a branch so we sent 12 of our cubs (plus some leaders) to sleep in the marquee although the rest of use slept in our usual campsite.
The entertainment consisted of a group of four wanderers looking for the 2010 Australian Jamboree – finding the 1908 jamboree, Rio’s carnivale and cuboree instead! Many of the cuboree cubs are now looking forward to attending jamboree.
I enjoyed being with the cubs – most of whom I didn’t know beforehand, plus three from my home pack – and we had a great bunch of leaders in our pack, too. Will I go again? I’d definitely consider it! Seriously, if the circumstances were right for me personally, then yes I would go again – but would ensure I had some extra time off to recover afterwards!
Would I send my own kids to the next cuboree (age limits allowing of course!), most definitely – I think it is a great experience for them.
Have you ever been to something like cuboree? Is it something you look back on fondly?
And I even learned a few things that may just come in handy as a writer and business owner 🙂 Watch for upcoming blog posts!
Cuboree 2008
As of tomorrow, I will be away with approximately 3,000 cubs and 1,300 leaders at the Victorian Cuboree. A cuboree is effectively a mass camp for cubs (8 to 10 year olds) every 3 years.
I am looking forward to it – I remember how much fun I had as a kid going on a Venture (equivalent to a cuboree but for 14 – 18 year olds) so now I can give others that enjoyment whilst also seeing how much fun it is on the other side!
For those who are curious, leaders don’t get paid – we are there as volunteers and I’m sure our exhaustion levels when we get home will prove they get their money’s worth from us!
I have programmed ahead for some blog posts, but please be patient for replies to comments or emails as none of the gum trees have power or internet connections so I will be completely offline for the duration!
Two Wolves
As a cub leader, the blog entry titled “Two wolves” at The Tall Poppy instantly caught my eye (cubs are named for wolf cubs pack as the young of scouting.)
Anne’s post relates the Chrokee story of us all have two inner wolves fighting for control, with one wolf repeseanting greed, fear, guilt and eog and the other represnting joy, peace, genrosity and compassion.
And which wolf wins? “The one you feed.”
I think that is very true – the more you focus on, the more you see in your life.
Both personally and in my writing, I try to avoid negatives to focus on helping people and seeing the good in life. I’m not perfect at it, lol, but I certainly keep my professional writing positive and informative, and my whole business is modelled on helping other businesses succeed.
And I hope that by reading my blog, you are feeding your positive wolf.
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