Have you ever gone shopping on an online site and wondered why some of the prices were so very different from what others sell them at? Sometimes I wonder if it's just a case of someone not knowing that periods exist and where they belong, because I'm not talking about a $10-$15 difference, I'm talking about $2990 vs $29.99 or $115 vs $15. I don't bother clicking the listing, but I often wonder if they've dipped the item in gold or if a famous person signed it that they think they can get that much for it compared to what the rest of the market is selling it for. On a similar note, many of us have experienced similar things with communications we've had with others or seen others have. For example people who only use exclamation points or question marks in their writings so that everything was a question or everything was exclamatory. Another classic example of questionable communication are those people who write in all caps lock even when they aren't shouting at someone.
But it really got me thinking about the importance of paying attention to details, and how important it is to teach our kids to pay attention to details. It matters if you put in a teaspoon or tablespoon of salt in a recipe, it matters if you call someone when they asked for an email, it matters if you use a period or a comma when money is involved, it matters if you say you're going to be somewhere at a certain time and are an hour late, it matters how much of a medicine is put in a syringe, it matters if you don't respect someone's medical conditions or food allergies you knew about, it matters if you drink the last cup of coffee in the middle of the day at work and don't make a new pot, and the list goes on. For kids being detail oriented can look like building a structurally sound house out of blocks, getting into fewer fights and upsets because rules were established before the game began, the one who shows up at birthday parties with the best gift because they pay attention to their friends, and even the one with the best stories because they pay attention to the world around them.
Details matter because in extreme cases if you don't pay attention to them, they can get you killed. But in much less extreme cases being detail oriented can make you the one that gets picked for the position over someone else, the person who gets the best deal, the person everyone turns to for advice, and the one who always manages to come out mostly or definitely on top of a situation because you were paying attention and got out at the right time or had a 'plan b' ready to go. It also means that you have to redo things less often because you were paying attention to and for details in the first place. Being detail oriented doesn't mean that you are perfect, but it does mean that you always check the things that matter like punctuation, spelling, allergies, number of attendees, rules about where you're going, and ask other people what matters to them. Yes, it means some extra work up front usually, but it ends up saving you so much time and stress on the other end. What areas do you find you are better with details?
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