Leave It Better Than You Found It

I grew up sharing a love for the outdoors with my friends and family. At an early age, I was taught the saying, “leave it better than you found it.”

This saying is the base of outdoor ethics. It encourages people to improve natural areas whenever they go hiking, camping, boating, etc. This might involve picking up litter at a campsite or moving fallen debris from a trail. It also means that you never leave the area worse than you found it. You always pack out your trash and leave a minimal impact.

In adulthood, I have applied this mantra to all aspects of my life. It is easy to turn a blind-eye to the “litter” in our day-to-day life and to blame the mess on someone else but addressing it can make huge impacts.

If you inherit a project or task from a co-worker, take some time to reduce the clutter they may have left behind. Similarly, if you are assisting with a well-organized and functional project, make sure it stays as clean as possible. With EAM, this can mean cleaning up screen layouts, standardizing messy data, or improving the accuracy of work orders.

Keep in mind, one of the key words in the phrase is better, not perfect. It can be easy to get sucked into striving for perfection, but as long as we try to make improvements, no matter how small, it is still better than we found it

Until next time…we are Advoco, make every minute count.

About Irene: Irene Siemen is a Solutions Architect at Advoco. She is a graduate of Clemson University where she got her Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering. When Irene isn’t helping clients achieve EAM success, you can find her outside – hiking, biking, and camping! Have a question for Irene? Send her an email.