Many of the projects Dad and I worked on involved carpentry. I can’t think of anything that Dad wouldn’t undertake. We built doghouses, walls, rooms, buildings, concrete forms, swings, tree houses, bunk beds, offices, workbenches, decks, just about anything you can imagine. On every job, I learned something. Somewhere along the way, Dad began to trust me to do the sawing. If you’ve ever done much sawing, you know this is not a job for an anxious kid. It requires a certain level of skill and a LOT of attention.
On one (or ten, or twelve) of the boards, I made the cut too short. This, of course, made the board pretty much useless for this place, since a board that is too short will not reach to the other side of the space for which it was cut. That’s when Dad encouraged me and taught me to always “measure twice, and cut once.”
He explained that good carpenters (as well as other craftsmen in occupations that have to cut to fit) always make the measurement, check the raw material, measure again (to be sure), make the mark and check the mark, then make the cut. By doing this, they almost always make the cut right. Now, I’m not going to go into some long discussion of how to use a saw. You probably got your fill of that with the hammers. But this method applies to more than just sawing wood.
A lot of other sayings express some of the same sentiment as this one, like “Look before you leap”, “Consider the costs” and others. They all suggest the same thing: you should really be sure about what you are about to do to avoid making mistakes. The converse is true, of course, that if you go to the trouble to make the measurements correctly, you can be absolutely sure before moving on and thus have the confidence it takes to do a job well the first time.
If we would measure twice before we say things to others, we would greatly reduce the number of times that our words fall short. It would allow us to cut down on waste, damaged relationships, and bruised feelings. The resulting relationships would not only fit better but would be built to last and endure all kinds of stress.
Measuring twice before moving on to a new job, or a new home, or a new spouse, or any number of things, would really help us to know that we were making the right decisions. So next time you size up a situation, be sure to measure it, check your options, then measure it again. It could make all the difference in how well you fit.
