This is among the most under-rated and overlooked characteristic one can possess.

From meetings to sports matches to job interviews, I've seen people come under-prepared. I myself have done this on a handful of occasions and have suffered the consequences as a result. There have been instances where I've been able to hide the fact that I've come under-prepared by employing quick thinking and a keen presence of mind. However, on every one of those occasions, I've come out thinking that I could have achieved a lot more had I taken the initiative to go prepared.

Pretty much every thing that we do calls for preparation. Some need less time and some need more, but everything that we do needs preparation in order to prime us to deliver our best.

Someone giving the same talk for the tenth time may feel like they don't need to prepare for it, and they probably don't. But then again, the nine previous occasions that they have given that talk all add up in preparation for their tenth. There is no additional preparation that they need for their tenth talk. But they still need preparation and they have it.

Whenever I catch myself leading up to an event that I'm under-prepared for, I immediately enter in some time for preparation in my calendar. This way, I've been able to reduce the number of occasions that I've been under-prepared on.

If something is important to you, then spend some time preparing for it.