Going the Extra Mile

An Extra 16kms

The great thing about dad jokes is that you don’t have to be a father to make them or enjoy them. I was pleasantly surprised by a dad joke last week. I went on a business trip to Everland and Yongin. We needed to get to the hotel from Everland and traffic was starting to get bad. It was the start of rush hour. In my car, I had a Native teacher in the front with me and two trainees in the back. The on ramps to the highway were a little confusing on the app. I almost came to a stop because I thought we might be in the wrong lane. One of the trainees encouraged me to continue driving saying that it was the correct lane… It was not. We ended up driving to the outskirts of Seoul instead of towards Dongtan. I think we ended up driving an extra 20 minutes or so. When we finally arrived at the hotel, one of the trainees thanked me by saying, “Thank you for going the extra mile.”

Meaning

Going the extra mile means that you are doing more than what is expected. You are making an extra effort (often to help someone). In my story I went the extra mile by driving about 10 extra miles. A mile is 1.6km and we drove approximately 8km in the wrong direction.

Example: I asked him to paint my bedroom, but he went the extra mile. He also cleaned my carpet and painted the trim.

Origin

The extra mile comes from the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story. In the story, Jesus tells his followers, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” (Mathew 5:41 – NIV) The implication of this bible verse is that you should do more than you are asked to do. Jesus made have come across this idea during his travels as the Romans had a rule called angaria which was quite similar. According to this law, if you lived in an area occupied by the Roman army, you were required to help them with transportation, give them supplies, and carry messages to the Roman soldiers. In modern Greek, angaria refers to any service or task that someone is reluctantly forced to do.

Personal Philosophy

I am not sure that you should do extra work every time someone FORCES you to do something, but it is similar to one of my philosophies. If I do something, I am going to do it to the best of my abilities even if I don’t like it. It is similar to the proverb: “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” This philosophy is often challenged at work. Nobody wanted to go on this trip to Everland (including me!), but I didn’t have a choice. Instead, I made an effort to enjoy the time. Don’t tell my boss, but I actually did enjoy the trip. I had some really nice conversations and I got to hang out with some fun people.

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Reference:
https://grammarist.com/idiom/go-the-extra-mile/
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5:41&version=NIV
https://www.idioms.online/go-the-extra-mile/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angaria_(Roman_law)