Cultivating Success: Lessons from Gardening

I remember being a child and planting a seed in some garden or other. Maybe it was a solo cup. I was homeschooled, after all, and gardening was a part of the curriculum.

The point is -- seed was planted and then I waited with rapt expectation. I’d water it, move the soil to a place in the sun and then watch it some more.

Cut to: I’m a 35 year old. I still have the same childlike impatience. I do the same thing with the metaphorical seeds I plant all the time.

Pay for an ad in the Flagpole, sit by the phone and wait for someone to call.

Pitch my offerings on social media, surely someone will send me a venmo any moment now.

Truth is -- good things take time. I remember now that I would actually have to basically completely forget about the seed I had planted for the sprout to poke up through the packed soil. Sometimes it took weeks of watering and still seeing nothing.

There’s several lessons here.

First of all, good things take time. This one sucks because if you’re like me, you want to just do the action and immediately see the result. We see other people going viral on tiktok or thriving in the height of their career and do that comparison thing. What we don’t see is the many hours and likely years this individual dedicated to make this their reality.

Second lesson: you gotta water the soil even (or maybe even especially) before you see the result. This one’s hard too. It’s my instinct to quit something when it doesn’t yield instant results. Like, oh well, maybe I’ll move on to something else, this isn’t working and it’s just been one week. It feels frustrating, but sitting in the discomfort of the uncertainty might very well be the meat of life.

This is where faith comes in. And I’ve come to realize everyone has faith, regardless of what you’ve chosen to call your faith. You have to believe that the seeds you’ve planted and the water you’re giving it will eventually become something. If anything, it will become a message to try something else if nothing happens after a long enough time.

I love the quote, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” You gotta be ready, you gotta be prepared, you gotta be looking for the opportunity, tuned in to what that may look like.

Third of all: you reap what you sow. No amount of watering or perfect soil or plant food is going to change your carrot seed into peppers. So, what kind of seeds are you planting? Does it align with what you are expecting to grow above the surface of the soil? Think: partying and poor sleep will not yield a clear mind and deep meaningful relationships. I spent the decade of my twenties doing this and complaining that I didn’t know what to do with my life and unhappy with how I felt.

The environment in which you are trying to grow your seed matters too. So as in life, what you consume affects the composition of your life. Who you surround yourself with might be the quickest and easiest way to begin to change your life.

Do your close friends have lives like the one you’re working toward? Do they have similar dreams they’re building? We all have heard that stupid quote: “You are the average of the five people with whom you spend most of your time.” Eye roll, sure, but it’s true.

Because of the ways our brains are programmed for evolutionary and biological survival, we are going to reflect the world we live in. It’s the safest way to live.

Changing your life and your place in society isn’t safe and it isn’t comfortable. People are going to laugh at you or just ignore you. Our society doesn’t want creative cogs or cogs that think for themselves. It’s harder this way.

But you know what they say: “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

So how can we rise above? How can we change our lives? Funny thing is, it starts with our mindset and it turns out our mindset is just our attitude.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “attitude adjustment”. We can give that to ourselves.

Where to begin? I’m so glad you asked. Follow along @janplan on Instagram and this is what I will be talking about all week.

Until then, go out there and do some shit that scares you.