Category: Scoutmaster Minutes

“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at.
Therefore, though they might fail immediately, they had
better aim at something high.”
That quote is from Walden, by Henry David
Thoreau. Remember the troop shoot at the rifle range
this past summer? You hit the target only if you aimed
at it. Well, Thoreau realized that this is true in life, also.
Whatever your goals are, you won’t achieve them
unless you aim for them. You might completely miss
the mark on your first few shots, but as you practice
and gain knowledge, and experience, and control, you’ll
become a better marksman, able to consistently hit
your target.
And set a high goal for yourself. Those who have
reached the rank of Eagle Scout in this troop will tell
you that they decided early to aim for Scouting’s highest rank, and then they kept that target in their sights
until they hit it.

The difference between winning and losing is sometimes
very slight. There were eight finalists in the men’s 100-
meter dash at the 1976 Olympics. The Gold Medal winner beat the eighth man by less than half a second.
There are five million people engaged in selling in
America. Can you imagine what our gross national product would be if each of them had made just one more
sale last year? In sports, business, politics, or Scouting,
winning isn’t everything, but it sure beats losing

You can always spot the greenhorn – the first year camper – as soon as “Taps” sounds on the first night in camp. It’s the one who just can’t quiet down when the time comes for sleeping.

The experienced camper, comfortable and warm in bed, knows that night is for sleeping – knows that we’ll have more fun and be in better shape for all the activities next day, if we get a good night’s sleep now.

The greenhorn is the one who makes an uncomfortable bed and wakes up in the wee small hours, cold and sore and unable to get back to sleep. Greenhorns can’t stand to be cold and uncomfortable alone, so they wake up a few other soundly sleeping fellow Scouts to share their discomfort.

This, naturally, makes them unpopular scouts, not only with the others that they intentionally woke up, but with all the other campers who are roused by the noise created by the greenhorn out chopping wood to keep warm.

Don’t be a camp greenhorn. Night is for sleeping. Be quiet after “Taps” until you get to sleep, and if you wake up early in the morning, don’t give away your inexperience by getting up. Stay in bed until Reveille.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
Into success ’cause we stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worse that you must not quit.