Pruning

A re-post from a few months ago:

I just started reading a book lately that I find very interesting.  Necessary Endings makes the point that endings are necessary for good results to happen in life and to be able to move forward from bad situations, but that we aren't good at ending things and we mostly do whatever we can to avoid them or really mess up ending a situation in a bad kind of way.  One of the chapters talks about how it is necessary to prune. 

My Grandma Martin loved flowers and she was incredible at growing them.  I remember watching her as she worked with them, watering them, feeding them, and pruning them constantly.  It brings back good memories when I pull down the driveway of Granddad's house and Grandma's flowers are still there as a reminder of her and the love that she provided in her care of those lovely plants.  If I close my eyes, I can still see my Grandma gracefully and tenderly working around the house in her flower beds as she pruned her flowers.

Grandma Martin knew that her flowers and plants couldn't reach their full potential without the very systematic process of pruning.  She would cut off the branches and buds to make the flowers healthier and more vibrant.  In Necessary Endings, the author says that a gardener prunes in three different instances:

1. Healthy buds or branches that are not the best ones
2. Sick branches that are not going to get well, and
3. Dead branches that are taking up space needed for the healthy ones to thrive

So in real life, pruning applies when you are achieving average results in your business or personal life as compared to where you are supposed to be.  In other words, if you are are just average when taking inventory of your natural abilities, and opportunities, and resources and you should be way ahead of where you are, you should start pruning. 

Metaphorically speaking, we all have one or all of the three situations listed above in our personal life or in our profession.  So stop being stuck in some area of your life and start pruning.

It may hurt, it may be uncomfortable, and it may be embarrassing.  However, in the end, pruning will help you to be more successful and help you to thrive in a more healthy manner.

Now just if I can find those pruning shears!