Cultivation

Sometimes we are so close to a problem, situation, person, that we don’t see what is going on. Taking a step back, looking in with a fresh eye, usually reveals perspectives, advice that are surprisingly simple.

Case in point – in my previous post “attitude of gratitude is hard” Margarita, very simply pointed out that I need to concentrate on cultivation, not magnitude. And she is SOOOOOOOOO right. I was tripping over my feet on the magnitude of things that I have to be grateful for. When I took her advice to heart, stopped concentrating on the magnitude and made the mental shift to concentrate on the cultivation, suddenly it seems a lot easier.

It is easier to do one act at a time. Easier to ask for help with just one act at a time. It is easier to say thank you from the heart for one act at a time.

This morning I recycled that advice for another friend. It is only the 9th of January and he is already frustrated that he is not working towards achieving his resolutions. He wants to network more, my advice was to break down his goal. If he decides to meet and get to know just 1 interesting person every 2 months, then by the end of the year, he will know 6 new interesting people. The focus is on cultivating just one new contact in his network.

He wants to be more healthy, well so do I. But if I think of all the changes I have to make in my diet and all the exercises that I should be doing, its easy to get frustrated. So here, I think the advice for both us, is just to concentrate on developing healthier habits. Cultivating a healthier us is a daily business. Some days we will do better, some days we will fall off the horse, then all we have to do is just get back on track again the next day.

The focus is on cultivation. Cultivate the things you want… anything that you want, break it down into small manageable steps/goals and just do that on a daily basis. As Margarita said, think of it like a garden. You plant your garden and then work on it daily without expecting the flowers/fruits to be borne immediately. You wait for it to flower, you wait for the fruits to come, meanwhile you weed, water, fertilize and just generally work on maintaining your garden without allowing yourself to get frustrated. So go on and cultivate and wait to reap your rewards.

 

Today, I am grateful for the bloggers in my community. Their blogs inspire me. Their comments, suggestions, tips and tricks help me to wrap my head around ideas much more easily.