What I Learned from Sorting Apples

My working class family "just made it," and opportunities to earn money were rare in our small village. So when Dad announced that I might be able to pick up a job at the apple orchard, I jumped on it.

My job was to sort prime apples out of the many bushels under the trees and place them inside boxes full of slots covered with fancy tissue paper. "First Class" fruit would then be shipped to stores.

As I started to work, I hesitated as I looked over each apple to make sure it really "hit" perfect...

Ooops... later in the day I discovered I had not kept a good pace. The orchard owner said, "Robyn, you just haven't sorted as many bushels as the rest, so I can't pay you as much." Ouch!

That lesson stayed with me... In jobs like sorting best fruit, extreme perfection isn't needed - but speed and quick judgment are.

Interestingly, psychologists at the University of Exeter identified "an 'early warning signal' in the brain that helps us avoid repeating previous mistakes." Our brain has a mechanism that reacts in just 0.1 seconds to actions that resulted in past errors.

What have odd jobs taught you?

If you'd enjoy Robert Hruzek's challenge to participate in his "What I Learned From..." challenge, the deadline's Sunday night, April 13. Here’s all you have to do:

* Write a new post on your blog with a link to What I Learned from Odd Jobs
* Include in the title the phrase: “What I Learned From _____” (or something similar)
* Send Robert Hruzek an email (rhruzek@sbcglobal.net) containing your name, the title of your post, and the permalink of the post. (To make sure he doesn’t miss it.)

If you want to take part in the meme at High Callings Blog be sure to:

* Read his kickoff post for all the details, and then don’t forget to link to this post, too!
* Tag your post “lessons from odd jobs” if you use Technorati or other forms of meta-tags.
* Send an email to Marcus (marcus@highcallingblogs.com) and let him know you’re in!