One day, a man decided to start a garden. He didn’t know where to begin. He just knew that he wanted to grow plants. So the man bought some plants and seeds and planted them in the dirt. He watered them occasionally, cut out weeds once in awhile, and tended to his plants when he felt the urge to garden. After a few weeks, some of his seeds had sprouted, some had not. Some of the plants had grown taller, others had not. The man continued to tend to his garden. He watered the plants when he remembered, he cut out weeds occasionally, and tended to his plants when he felt the urge. After a few months, most of the plants were either withered or dying, and weeds had over taken his garden. The man lost the urge to tend to his garden.

Around the same time, another man also decided to start a garden. He didn’t know where to begin. He just knew he wanted to grow plants. He said he’d try for just a month. The man bought plants and seeds and planted them in the dirt. He watered them, cut out weeds, and tended to the plants every Saturday. After a few weeks, some of his seeds had sprouted, some had not. Some of the plants had grown taller, others had not. He committed to another month and continued to tend to his garden every Saturday. He noticed that some plants were still not growing or dying, so he tended to these plants twice a week. After a few months, his garden was doing well. Some plants had died, but he learned why and tried again. He continued to garden.

Our lives are built up in a similar way. If we garden our lives like the first man, only tending to it when we feel the urge, it will slowly wither away. If we garden our lives like the second, we will slowly learn how to live.

If you want to do something, schedule it. By scheduling a time to do something, we give it value. It becomes a priority in our life and we learn from them. We learn some plants need to be watered once a week, others twice a week. We learn some plants do well in direct sunlight, others need to be in the shade. We learn that weeds grow everyday, like clockwork. And some days, we do not want to water the plants, we do not want to cut out the weeds. But we do it anyways because we scheduled it and made a commitment to ourselves. Over time, this became a routine and has become part of us. Still, on some days, we do not feel good. On those days, it is hard to garden, but our routine drives us. And most days, after we tend to our garden, we come away feeling better.

Tend to your life. Schedule what is a priority, and commit to that schedule. Give it a beginning and an end. Some things will stick around, some things won’t, but as long as you’ve scheduled it, stay committed to it. You will learn and grow, just like a garden.

My personal lesson from writing and “Schedule It” article

A big win for me is that I’ve scheduled writing an article every Thursday. I’ve been able to pump out something for a few months now. There are rare days, where an article will materialize without a lot of resistance. Most days though, I sit in front of the computer for hours, check email and my phone a hundred times, stare out the window, check sports, drink water, get more water, and repeat.

My own lesson from this is that while I have scheduled a day to post articles, I did not give a specific time to start and end my writing sessions. I have no set time to write and only start once I’ve settled. This leads to most Thursdays being extremely stressful.

A change I’m going to make starting for the next post, is that I’m going to give myself a set window to write everyday. Let’s just go with 10 to 11am Monday through Fridays. Thursdays will be from 10am to 2PM, with my article being posted by 2PM. I will commit to this for the next 4 weeks and see how things turn out.

Just applied my own lesson and added events to my calendar. Sweet.