Green Grass

Are you familiar with the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side"?  It refers to observing a different environment or someone else's situation and thinking it is better than yours.  The key thing to remember is that the grass on the other side may have started out just like your grass.  Work had to be done to get it to the beautiful color that you see now.  Don't think that others had an easy path to any success that you may admire.  There were sacrifices made and steps followed over a period of time.  There is no such thing as an overnight success.  Just because you didn't see the work doesn't mean it didn't happen.  Green grass requires planting, watering, fertilization, weeding, and mowing.  While these are lawn care terms, they can be applied to other areas. 

1. Plant - Your ideas and opinions are seeds.  What you sow will grow.  Seeds of doubt produce weeds of worry.  Seeds of confidence produce blades of belief.  Seeds of can't produce weeds of won't. Seeds of attention produce lawns without limits.
2. Water - A sprinkler system distributes water throughout the grass.  The water provides moisture so that the grass won't dry out and die. Similarly, your creativity needs to be watered on a regular basis.  Use it or lose it.  What you create may not be useful, make sense, or look good.  That's okay, sometimes the process is more important than the product.  Practice is not only necessary for medicine, law, athletics, and many other skills.  It is the only way to strengthen your creative abilities.
3. Fertilize - Your experience, environment, and curiosity serve as fertilizers for your progress. Failure is a powerful fertilizer.  When you are knocked down, you get up with an understanding of how to avoid that fall in the future.  Where you are impacts your development path .  When you interact with others that are focused and expect to grow, you benefit from the association.  Always ask questions.  It's the best way to get answers.  Never assume that you know everything about anything. 
4. Weed - Distractions are all around you.  It is key to recognize them so that they don't hinder your progress.  Just as weeds may be green like grass, your distractions may appear to be beneficial to you at first glance.  It is helpful to periodically review what you are doing and the reasons for it.  This will help you identify the weeds and eliminate them. 
5. Mow - Trim your list of "musts" to a reasonable number. It's called prioritization.  Everything is not critical.  Some things don't have to be done right now.  Learn how to divide your "haves".  There is a difference between a must have and a nice to have.  Continuous mowing (evaluation, prioritization, flexibility) is necessary so that you don't have an overgrown lawn, or overwhelmed you.  

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