Photo Credit - Paul Holley
My wife is a master gardener. There is nothing she cannot do when it comes to flowers, plants or trees. She studies it, she knows it, she lives it. So, why is it that when I see her snipping away perfectly good looking stems from her rose bushes I begin to object? She’s the expert, I don’t know jack, but it just does not seem right to me.
“You have to trim away the parts that keep the bush from reaching its full potential”, she tells me and I know that she is right. Left to its own the rose bush would become a tangled and unorganized mess instead of the long stemmed beautiful creation that we all love to admire. She has to cut away the dead stems and blooms, the stems or blooms that look sick or dying, and even some healthy stems or blooms that might look good, but are not the best.
Avoiding a Tangled Mess
If your life is the rose bush then that makes you the master gardener. The need for pruning is constant and that job falls to you. If you want to reach your full potential then you need to take on the intentional practice of pruning away the parts of your life that are holding you back.
Dr. Henry Cloud in his book, “Necessary Endings” says that, “growth depends on getting rid of the unwanted or the superfluous”. In my life, just like that of the rose bush I need to be on the look out for things that take up my time and energy, but that will never drive the results that I am looking for. For me this means deciding what are the most important that I need to be focusing on and let other less important, or non-producing things go.
Just like the gardener, this process needs to be intentional and purposeful. Meaning, I need to acknowledge the constant need for pruning and then make the assessment and take the actions on a regular basis. Since I am a simple guy and need a simple plan, here are the three questions I ask myself and I ask those who know me best.
1. What Should I Stop Doing? What are the things that take my time, money, energy and resources, but do not help me achieve the results I am looking to achieve?
2. What Should I Keep Doing? Where do you see the greats return on your investment of time, money, energy and resources?
3. What Should I Start Doing? What am I missing? What actions or habits do I need to build into my life that would move me from good to great in the area of my goals and aspirations?
If you are like me, starting new things is not a problem. I am an idea guy and I have a thousand ideas of things I can start doing today. The problem, like the rose bush, is that more is not better. Doing the right things and stopping the wrong things is where productivity and success will be found. It is so easy to be spread over so many seemingly good things that we miss the great things. Pruning can be painful, but it is a short term pain that once endured creates long term gain.
Admire a rose bush today and ask yourself what needs to be pruned from your life to ensure equal beauty in your future.
