Let Your Life Flourish
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Flower Wall - Beijing, China.
I can think of several instances where I have had to reduce or completely stop interacting with people or cut out things that were once prominent in my life. Most recently, I notified an organization I have volunteered with for the last four years that this year will be my last. I did not end these relationships because I don’t care for these people/organization. I did it because I care for myself.
The relationships, commitments, and goals etc. that make up our lives are much like the branches and leaves that make up a plant. Like branches and leaves; they will grow one on top of the next, block or reduce the supply of resources, and sustain dead or decaying parts. And just like plants, our lives require care and attention to allow for growth and prosperity. Similarly, if not properly tended to, our lives will become less fruitful.
The same rules for (and benefits of) pruning a plant are applicable to our lives. Pruning serves to improve health and produce growth. It involves enhancing natural form and character by removing anything that competes with growth (death, decay, parasites etc.). However, what to trim, when to trim it, how to trim it, and what to leave behind requires a great deal of awareness and discernment. If we take the same approach to pruning our lives as a gardener would to a plant, we can improve our chances to flourish and maximize our growth potential.
What in your life is competing with your growth?
Before we prune, we should have a mental picture of what we want our lives to look like. Begin by assessing your progress toward your goals and evaluate what in your life is preventing or slowing your ability to achieve them. Below are some examples of places you might begin:
•Relationships
•Commitments
•Obligations
•Habits
•Physical belongings
•Thoughts
•Beliefs
In every end, there is also a beginning.
Begin by identifying and eliminating anything that is dead, useless, or damaged beyond repair – cut them from your life. Now, when things are not quiet dead and we have an emotional attachment to them, it can be difficult to see these things for what they are. Assess what is not changing despite your best efforts. They may be at a point where no amount of extra care from you is going to make it well. Also, if there are things that require a lot of your resources and the return for your invested resources is little-to-none; it may be time snip it.
We sometimes maintain commitments, beliefs or relationships that have run their course and no longer contribute to our growth and success. The removal of what does not contribute to the vitality of the whole is a necessary step.
Prune away some of the good for the achievement of the best.
Growth by itself is not always good. If not properly tended to and guided our lives can be filled up with many “good things” – many opportunities, relationships and commitments that can overwhelm us and stretch our resources to the point that nothing, or no one gets our full attention or our best. We all have a finite amount of energy. Expending it in the right places and in the proportions is important. Decluttering frees energy and attention to allow the things that matter to most to thrive.
Life is about change and growth. To grow you need to change. Sometimes that change may include adding certain things to your life, other times it may require you to get rid of certain things. Don’t live the same day over and over and expect different results.
When you start pruning the things in your life there will be some uneasiness or discomfort. Be encouraged. When the work is done and you begin to realize new signs of growth in your life, you will be glad that you did the work.
I think; therefore, I am…flourishing!