Planting Habits
Habits are like plants! SAY WHAT??
Thats right, my parents always taught me to plant “seeds” growing up. Honesty, compassion and faith were some of the more prominent ones that they emphasized, telling me that if I nurtured these seeds they’d turn into something great when I was older. But be careful, they cautioned, If I didn’t provide daily water and care to these seeds they would quickly wither up and be replaced by fast-growing weeds like selfishness, greed, and envy. So how do we make sure that we are taking care of the good seeds and are removing the weeds before they overtake our life?
It’s always easier for me to understand something if I have a visual representation or a story to refer back to. SO, here is a cute little short story I revised about a mother and a daughter, to help paint the picture a little better.
A mother was on a stroll through the garden with her young daughter discussing good and bad habits and how they were like plants.
The mother saw that her daughter was confused so she asked her to pull out a tiny plant growing in the ground there. With ease, she plucked the little plant out from the earth. Her mother then asked her to pull out a slightly bigger plant and again the girl pulled hard and the plant came out, roots and all.
“Now pull out that one” the mother said pointing to a bush. The little girl used all her strength and managed to pull it out.
“Now take this one out” said the mother motioning towards a guava tree. The daughter grasped the trunk and tried with all her might to pull it out, but it would not budge.
“It’s impossible”, the little girl panted.
“So it is with bad habits as well” said her mother, “when they are young it is easy to pull them out but when they take hold, they cannot be uprooted.”
No matter if the habit is good or bad, the longer that you give the habit to grow and deepen its roots in our everyday life, the harder it will be to pluck them out. Unfortunately, bad habits tend to grow faster than good habits and with little to no effort from us. On the other hand, good habits require consistent focus and effort before they can spread their roots and become part of who we are.
What does this require of us? First, we need to make sure that we not only listen to other people’s advice, but that we also seek out friends and mentors who can help us see the habits and traits that may be growing up in our blind spots. Like the story points out, it often takes other people to point out things that are indiscernible to us. Second, we need to make sure to act when we or someone else notices something, whether that be a habit that we should grow or one that we should pluck out. Never put off until tomorrow what we can take out today, because just like the roots that the mother pointed out to the little girl, habits will not be easier to take out tomorrow. Lastly, we need to develop within ourselves an awareness of the seeds that we have planted. When we are aware of these seeds, we need to watch them and pay attention to how they grow. If a seed is good, it will grow into more good, and we should pay attention to plant more of those seeds in our lives. If a seed is bad, it will produce bad fruits quickly, and we need to pluck that out sooner rather than later.
I hope you enjoyed this post! I love to hear from you so feel free to leave feedback on my contact page!
love & light
Bree
