This cartoon brings up so many profound truths for me: It’s up to us. Start small. We can create our own reality. Little things matter. Don’t give up. Expectations are everything. Be the change we want to see in the world. It’s always worth nurturing or creating something. Focus on the positive. And on and on.
Of course, it’s not always that easy to just plant flowers (literally or metaphorically). It’s very easy to get paralyzed by thinking that whatever we do it won’t be enough. I know I get caught up in that. I’m only one person, what can I do? Does it really matter? It reminds me of the story about a storm that has stranded thousands of starfish on the beach. There is a child walking along, picking up the starfish, and throwing them back into the sea, knowing they won’t otherwise survive. An adult walking by says, “There’s so many, you’ll hardly make a difference.” The child pauses for a minute, and then says, “But I’ll make a difference to this one.” In some versions of the story, after hearing the child’s response, the adult also starts throwing starfish back into the sea. Other adults start helping, and eventually they are all saved. I especially like that version!
What I take away from the cartoon is how important it is to do whatever we feel called to do to make the world a better place, whether that is planting flowers, or saving starfish, or registering voters, or helping people do things like plant flowers, save starfish, and register voters! And again, that reminder that no act of kindness or creation, or growth or nurturing, is ever too small for those that receive it.
I hope that 2020 will be wonderful in as many ways as possible for you and your loved ones. Here’s to planting flowers wherever we are, so that we shape the world around us into what we most want it to be.
My passion is helping people plant flowers at work – after all, that’s where we spend so much time. For 2020, I’m excited about merging that passion with what I’ve been experiencing in the Optimize Coach program – yes, that’s the program that got me to do not one, but two Spartan Races this past year!
I’ll be sharing soon about my new group program that will help us all optimize our work, energy, and relationships in 2020 and beyond. And if you know someone who could use some seeds planted at their job right now, please let me know. I would be happy to gift them a Make a Leap Strategy Session so that they can get some things to shift immediately!
P.S. – For those of you who are regular readers of my newsletter, this cartoon and the starfish story may seem familiar. That’s because I originally wrote this in January of 2018. I woke up this morning thinking about the cartoon (unfortunately I don’t know who the cartoonist is), and decided I wanted to update it and share it again! Cheers! And Happy New Year and New Decade!