The Law of the Seed
Have a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, and each apple has ten to twelve seeds. Now that’s a lot of seeds!
We might ask, “Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more apple trees?”
Nature has something to teach us here. It’s telling us: “Not all seeds grow. In life, most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once.”
This means…
You’ll attend twenty interviews to get one job.
You’ll interview forty people to find one good employee.
You’ll talk to fifty people to sell one house, one car, one vacuum cleaner, one insurance policy, or a new business idea.
You might meet a hundred people just to find that one special friend.
When we understand the “Law of the Seed”, we don’t get so disappointed. We stop feeling like victims. We learn how to deal with things that happen to us.
Laws of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them – and work with them.
When things seem beyond our control, here are a few things NOT to do…
Do not focus on how the world OUGHT to be.
Do not make rules for how others OUGHT to behave.
Such thoughts only bring us spiralling down into more unhappiness.
Let’s say you expect that…
Friends OUGHT to return favours.
People OUGHT to appreciate us.
Planes OUGHT to arrive on time.
Everyone OUGHT to be honest.
Our husband or best friend OUGHT to remember our birthday.
These expectations may sound reasonable. But often, these things don’t happen! So we end up frustrated and disappointed.
Here is a better strategy…
Demand less, and convert expectations into intentions. For everything that is beyond our control, we can tell ourselves…
“I would prefer if this happens, but if that happens, it is okay too!”
We prefer that people are polite, but when they are rude, it doesn’t ruin our day.
We prefer sunshine, but if it rains, it is ok too!
We don’t take things personally.
Instead we start planting seeds (thoughts, words and actions) to create the inner and outer spaces we really want.
It’s not what happens to us that determines our happiness. It is how we think about and respond to what happens that makes all the difference.
Remember the Law of the Seed…
The secret of success is to fail more often. And to plant more seeds. From all these seeds, some are sure to grow into mighty big trees!