MONDAY MINDSET: WEEDS ARE WEEDS

WEEK OF 7/29/24

 

I’m sure some of you wonder what the creative process is like for these articles, right?  Well, would it surprise any of you to learn that I often sit down on a Sunday afternoon, scratch my head a bit, and either dip into the archives (yes, some of these are recycled every few years) or whip something up that feels relevant and appropriate for the moment?

The creative process for this is largely one built out of immediate need (I am accountable to this every week) and the pressure of delivering gets my wheels spinning pretty fast.  I’m not a huge fan of procrastination but there’s something to be said about immediacy lighting a fire under your butt and getting you moving, ya know?

Anyway, today (Sunday) I woke up early and got right to work on my yard.  I’m in the middle of trying to remove all my grass and replace it with clover and other short, hardy plants primarily so I never have to mow it, but also because I like seeing the little flowers bloom and the bees buzzing around happily.

I’m doing this by hand.  It’s just me, a trowel, and a few hours on a Sunday put towards ripping weeds and small patches of grass out of what’s otherwise a tiny clover lawn.

It’s tempting to want to pass over some of the smaller weeds.  After all, you can barely see them, there’s a lot of ground to cover, and they can be difficult to remove without just tearing away the greenery and leaving the root system behind.  The bigger weeds are easier to get out, actually.  They require a bit more work but at least they can be firmly handled and pulled out in one piece, and when removed their absence makes a satisfying visual impact.

But the smaller ones.. well, those are easy to miss and easy to excuse.

Here’s the problem, though.  Eventually, you are going to have to remove those weeds.  The smaller ones become the bigger ones.  You can do a sloppy job and leave the root system behind, of course —  it’ll look like you got rid of them but they’ll be back.  Or, you can ignore them until they’re too big to ignore.

Ultimately, no matter how small they are at any given time, they will grow to be a big problem.

I bet you’re wondering where this is going.  Well, here’s the segue: bad habits are like that too.

It’s easy to identify the big things that are holding you back, but to get in there with a scalpel and address the thousands of small ones that are problematic — that’s the challenge.

A weed is a weed.  A bad habit is a bad habit.  Left unchecked, little ones grow into big ones.  Don’t allow yourself to be deceived by their size — if you want to address something, address all of it.  Big and small.

But more important than any of that is to just get out there, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on yourself.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you may not be working with all the knowledge or the best tools, but even just a little bit of will power and a healthy dose of consistency will get you pretty far.