My girls are 3 and 4.5 years old. They are brimming with energy and questions about everything: they want to know how it works. They are fascinated by growth–their own and everything around them. One day, the girls decided they wanted to plant something and watch it grow. They filled a small plastic box with soil, sprinkled grass seeds into the dirt, watered it and placed it on a sunny window sill. Then they sat and quietly, intently stared at the box for 10 minutes (shattering all previous records for silent time in our home).
Just as I was getting used to the quiet, I heard excited shouts: “Daddy!! Daddy!! Come quick!!” When I arrived they breathlessly pointed at the box and said, “Daddy, there must be something wrong with the grass-it’s not coming out!” I explained that all seeds need time to attract what it needs to grow before it becomes the thing we want. There is a time for planting and a time for harvesting. But we don’t plant and harvest at the same time.
“Daddy, how long will it take the grass to come out?”
“If we give the grass seeds the right amount of water and sun, then the grass will start to poke thru the dirt in 5 days,” I said.
Each morning for the next 4 days when the girls woke they raced to the box of grass seed. Then they would run to me with disappointed and concerned faces and questions:
“Daddy, are you sure the seeds are good? Should we give it more water and put it outside so it could get more sun? Maybe we should dig it up and start over or put more dirt in the box?”
I explained again that all seeds need time to attract what it needs to grow before it becomes the thing we want. More than once I found them plotting to add more water or move the box to another window. We agreed to continue our care plan until the fifth day before trying anything new.
The girls ran to the box of seeds on the fifth morning and I heard squeals and shouting. “Daddy! Daddy! Come quick! The grass is poking out!” The girls were excited, delighted and wanted to know: “What else can we grow?”
Ideas are the mental seeds we plant in our mind. We don’t know exactly how long it will take for those mental seeds to mature into the things we want to do, be or have. If we believe in the vision of ourselves living that idea and take action, then the idea will become a reality. We must have faith that the growth is occurring and the vision is becoming a reality-even if we can’t see the result immediately-and keep taking actions toward our goal.
Bamboo is the largest type of grass. It can take several years for bamboo shoots to break through the earth. Then the bamboo will grow to as much as 100 feet in 12 weeks. A bamboo plant in Japan grew 4 feet in one day. Small ideas have little power. Go Big and Bold.
What do you want to do, be or have? What is the idea you want to grow?
About the Author:
Mike Scogna is helping people worldwide understand their purpose, create their vision, realize their goals and achieve exceptional results through his writing, coaching, consulting and seminars. Email me: MyBigIdea@BuildYourBliss.com
