To create a productive life, it’s important to start by stating the obvious. You have to create it. It doesn’t happen spontaneously.
A teacher once used the analogy of growing a garden to teach me productivity. I found it helpful I am going to use it here.
Imagine that you are a tree that has been planted in a garden. Also, imagine that using your imagination, you are able to come out of yourself and view yourself as an objective outsider and actually help do things to take care of the tree of life that represents you.
Here are 5 secrets that will help you create the productive life you want.
- Define success.
- Develop deep roots.
- Remove the weeds.
- Yield to Life’s pruning hand.
- Patiently wait for and expect a harvest.
1. Define Success
Being productive in any area of life starts with defining success and clarifying what productivity looks like for you.
2. Develop Deep Roots
Next, you need to develop deep roots in the areas you need productivity. When you look at a tree, roots are crucial to fruitfulness. Without roots, you won’t have any fruits. Everyone’s life has seasons. There are seasons of rain and seasons of drought or dryness. There are seasons of heat and seasons of relative cold. Just like deep roots allow a plant to withstand drought and heat, developing deep roots allows you to withstand drought and heat in your work and personal life. Also, just like deep roots give plants the strength to endure high winds and hurricanes that blow through from time to time, deep roots enable you to endure challenging times.
The question is, how do you develop deep roots in your work life? How do you develop deep roots in your personal life?
3. Remove the weeds
Unlike plants that need to be planted, weeks happen spontaneously and don’t need to be watered to survive. In fact, weeds will overtake your plant and kill it unless you remove the weeds.
Another key to a productive life is to remove the weeds so that the plant that is your life can grow and yield more fruit.
4. Yield to Life’s pruning hand
When you prune plants, they become more fruitful. To become more productive, we also need to submit ourselves to the pruning influences of Life.
5. Patiently wait for and expect a harvest
Nothing good happens in a day. To increase your productivity takes time. It takes time for a plant to develop deep roots. After pruning a plant, it takes time for it to show results by yielding more fruit. We just have to be patient and expect a harvest. That hope will allow us to continue to submit ourselves to the uncomfortable blade of pruning and allow us to keep doing the uncomfortable work of sinking our roots deeper into the ground.
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