The Accursed Hunger for Gold
"Auri sacra fames"
By Del Albright, Sustainable Motorized Recreation Advocate
with Todd Ockert
Always seeking something better!
In the off-road/OHV world, it seems we are always seeking a bigger, stronger, and better toy. I think we can say the same about land use and trails – always seeking.
In Latin,
there’s a phrase that covers this condition: “Auri sacra fames,” which
means the accursed hunger for gold. It is from Virgil’s Aeneid (19-BCE).
In his case, it focused on the insatiable desire for wealth and the lengths to
which folks will go in pursuit of it.
Virgil made the point that greed and the pursuit of material wealth are dangerous at any cost. In my many years of motorized recreation, I can attest to the danger of pursuing a bigger, badder, better-built rig—let alone the perfect trail system or perfect volunteer.
Before I
continue, I will consent that always seeking a better/badder rig keeps my mind
active and my hopes up! It’s kind of like trying to keep up with the Jones'. That is a good thing. Heck, we all know that change is growth, and once we quit
growing, well, you know…
The purpose
of this article is not to remind us how much money and effort we spend on
building better toys but to give some insight into pursuing perfection with
volunteers.
Let’s
transition this idea to land use and volunteerism. For example, we always want
a cleaner, more pristine trail to enjoy, so perhaps we get riled up and angry
over someone “who doesn’t get it.” In our pursuit for perfection, we might have
overlooked the lack of a trail patrol or law enforcement. People don’t drive
the speed limit on interstates because they want to; it’s due to speed limit
laws and police on patrol.
For another
example, let’s take an event you might be in charge of. You want it to turn out
perfect with no glitches. So you work your volunteer staff to the bone in the
pursuit of the “gold standard” of events. Using a military strategy, we start
out thinking that every plan is perfect until first “contact” with reality. You
might nit-pick, micro-manage, or just set expectations that are not realistic
in your seeking of something better. Your crew bucks back at you and/or burns
out in many cases. Perhaps, in this case, your “greed” for the best left you
holding the bag.
So here we
go. In volunteerism (and saving trails), we cannot expect perfection in my
experience. We cannot expect the hunger for gold to be satisfied completely.
However, that does not mean we can’t have a clean trail or a great event. It
just means we must be realistic with people who sacrifice their personal time
to help us in our pursuit of gold. And we must learn to live healthy and happy
lives with the gold we do get.
I am not
suggesting we lower our standards, but I am suggesting we find better ways to
achieve a reality that meets our expectations.
The trick, I
believe, is to learn how to impart your expectations to other volunteers in a
way that can help you get the gold and not frustrate them or you. Imparting
expectations clearly and completely requires practice and compassion. You must
put yourself in the shoes of your volunteers and “feel their pain.”
We must learn
what makes our volunteers excited or puts a smile on their faces at the end of
the day. It is different for everyone, so learning to “read” people really
makes communication more effortless (and finding gold).
And if you’re
getting eaten up by self-doubt or the feeling of failure because your idea of
perfection never happened, stop it! Please find a way to stop it. Take a look
at how you set expectations for achieving your gold-hunting goal. Consider
setting two goals/expectations at once – one high and one low ball so no matter
where the effort ends, you are in your range of “gold standard.” Get to know
your “crew” of volunteers better and find ways to communicate with them to help
you achieve your “auri sacra fames.”
Allow me to
add a caveat. Probably the biggest complaint I hear is how the job is not
getting done the way you want, so you do it yourself. Trash is not getting
picked up, so you stop and do it all along the trail by your lonesome. The
event committees are not doing all the jobs they were given, so you jump in and
just do them on top of what you’re already doing. This is a sure trail to
burnout.
Volunteers do
not like to be micromanaged. If a leader steps in and does all the work,
volunteers just step back and let it continue. Burnout is around the corner for
all.
We must avoid
burnout in the volunteer world. We can’t afford to lose people who believe in
our cause. Therefore, we must find ways to nurture, communicate, set
expectations, and achieve the pursuit of gold together.
(Feel free to
contact me if there is something specific I can help you with, such as
volunteering or saving trails for sustainable motorized recreation. Visit www.delalbright.com)
HELPFUL LINKS:
DEL'S BOOKS (LAND USE, WILDFIRE, DEATH VALLEY, COWBOY POETRY, AND MORE)
WEBSITE (HOME PAGE)
PINTEREST (BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND MORE)
DEL'S ARTICLES (LAND USE, LIFE, WILDFIRE, VOLUNTEERISM, AND MORE)
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