A Good Beginning Makes a Good Ending

A Yin/Yang Door at the Tombs of Gyeongju, South Korea

"A good beginning makes a good ending" is a traditional Japanese Proverb.

I'm reminded of this saying today as I work with my learning team at University of Phoenix. Our team is writing a paper and presentation this week. We had to agree on a thesis statement for the paper, which will also drive the presentation.

As we kicked ideas around (virtually - this is an online program), we all got a little impatient, I think. It took us two days of posting in the forum, and that's two days that we could have been writing.
At the same time, we all knew that we weren't happy yet.
Tonight, we aligned around our thesis. I now know exactly what I need to do on my part of the paper. In retrospect, it's obvious that it was worth the wait. It would have been a disaster to start any earlier.
Yet, it was very tempting to just dig in.

Despite my 10 years in Asia, the swoosh gene ('just do it') dominates me.
At least I'm aware enough now to not let impulse win.

As another Asian proverb says, "When in a hurry, take the roundabout route".