A few months ago, my friend Andy invited me to speak at his college graduation reception. I was excited at the opportunity to speak and share my experiences! I consider Andy to be a tremendous example of perseverance and accomplishment. To be elected to speak was an honor and, after all, he was graduating from one of the leading colleges in America so I was proud of him.

Approximately two weeks before the graduation reception, Andy and I talked on the phone about the upcoming event. During our conversation, I asked him a few questions to get an idea of how to best deliver my speech content. What type of place will it be held? How much time will I have to speak? Are there specific types of content that should be discussed? Andy simply told me to talk about our relations from its beginnings to now. He summed it up by telling me, “Dion, just talk about…”

How it started and how it grew

That phrase bounced back and forth in my head for days. For the first two days, I pondered about our mutual experiences as undergrads and the life principles that defined our conversations as students. I thought about the essence of growth, improvement, and the struggle that often accompanies it. I found many connections between them and started envisioning them as branches on the body of a tree.

On day three, I brainstormed analogies between life and the growth of a plant seed. And then it struck me: the analogy of life and plants fit perfectly! Just think about how the awe of life’s experiences – the unexpected outcomes, the patience, and the transitions – becomes so vast overtime. It’s amazing how our disparate past experiences connect to form this one moment of unity called now. Isn’t it incredible? It’s just like a plant’s veins and roots spreading about in all directions to sustain the object of unity; the tree.

I came up with three main principles to illustrate the connection between our life, its growth, and plants. They are:

# 1 – Water your garden

# 2 – It can take years to fully blossom

# 3 – You may be transplanted but don’t let that stop you from growing

# 1 – Water Your Garden

Little things done over a long period of time can accomplish much. To accomplish our larger objectives requires daily actions.

My friend Andy didn’t take a full course load during his undergraduate years. It simply didn’t fit into his collective life plan. As a result it took him six years rather than the ideal four years to receive his undergraduate degree. He watched classmates cycle through their undergraduate studies in less time and receive their bachelor’s degrees earlier than he did. Was it intimidating? Yes. But, guess what? He didn’t stop pursuing his degree year by year, semester by semester, class by class, assignment by assignment, and day by day. Andy watered his garden by contributing efforts toward his academic goals. Along the way he was faced with challenges, discouragement, and intimidation but he did not stop. How come? Because he knew that a seed can only grow from the size of a kernel to the size of a tree overhead with consistent cultivation.

# 2 – It can take years to fully blossom

Be very ambitious but be patient. In order for us to cultivate a seed to maturity we must be willing to take consistent action over the long-term.

Can we stay focused everyday for a year? How about two years? Six years?

Remember, Andy took six years to receive his undergraduate degree. But imagine if Andy watered his garden consistently for only a little while and then quit? He could’ve gone to each class and completed each assignment perfectly but if he got discouraged and quit during his fourth year he would never have seen his seeds blossom during the sixth year. Maintaining great daily habits is good and sustaining those habits for a while is solid, but it often does not suffice to meet our objectives.

It’s important for us to remember that time is our asset. We should dedicate ourselves to aggressive short sighted activity that works toward a far sighted objective. Andy is a perfect example. He kept watering his garden with the short sighted cultivations required to grow his seeds and sustained it for the far sighted purpose of his objective – graduating college.

# 3 – You may be transplanted but don’t let that stop you from growing

You never know where you’re going to end up. Life has its own way of serving surprises and crafting different conditions, but keep on growing.

Being transplanted happens when life changing predicaments, major transitions, or accidents come. Simply put, they are the things completely out of our control that will impact our plans. Sometimes, we lay our seeds down in the exact place we want them to be but strong winds come and blow them away. Or at another time a bird may fly in, carry off some of our seeds and drop them in a totally different place along the way back to its nest. Before you know it we’re at a totally different place in life and are simply left to wonder, how in the world did that happen?

Many times we’ll never quite figure out how in the world certain things happened. But those same things can seriously impact the frequency of our daily actions and affect how we water our garden. But the important point is to maintain our long term vision and to not lose sight of what we seek after.

Andy had his seeds blown away multiple times during his six year journey towards college graduation. It led to family challenges; led him to deal with the struggles of new habit formation, as well as the intense introspective critique of his life philosophy. The birds flew into his garden and carried off some of his seeds into the emotional trauma of the death of close friends, academic pitfalls, and the pains of untangling his life from a criminal past. My point is that his plans were affected multiple times when the winds blew his seeds away and the birds flew into his garden. Did this lead Andy to reduce his academic load and take fewer courses? You bet. It adversely impacted the intensity of his short term academic work. He watered his academic garden less and it dried up a little. Did he disregard his long term vision of graduating college with a bachelor’s degree? Absolutely not.

When it comes to life and plants, this is how it starts and how it grows.

It starts by watering our garden of seeds – ideas, concepts, and vision. Andy threw down his seed – the vision of receiving a bachelor’s degree from one of the leading colleges in America – and cultivated it. Regarding ourselves, are we watering our gardens and maximizing our skills and vision?

It can take years for our skills and vision to blossom. Just like Andy, our skills and vision will grow through consistent short sighted activity premised on a far sighted vision. Do you think you can stay focused long enough and water your garden until you see the results you want? You sure can! Andy did it and eventually his seed blossomed into a bachelor’s degree. So, what have you been watering that’s waiting to blossom in your garden?

Remember: no matter what seeds we plant, there can be catastrophes and challenges along the way. Although they can adversely affect the intensity of our activity, it does not have to stop our growth and does not have to change our objective. If the wind blows our seeds away or a bird carries them to different places we can still grow. No matter where we are placed, we can start right there and extend our roots even if it’s different than the soil we intended.