I’m currently visiting the city I grew up in, Gainesville.
It’s not like your typical Florida city. The palm trees are few and far between. Instead, the area is filled with lush greenery. The neighborhood I grew up in specifically has big, old oak trees that create beautiful canopies over the roads.
I took this picture on my morning walk yesterday.
It’s a beautiful and special place.
As I walked around the 3-mile trail through the neighborhood, I spent a lot of time thinking about these trees. There are so many different analogies you create or identify that resonate with the concept of growth, but there was one new thought about that I couldn’t shake.
Trees grow consistently, but slowly!
Most of these trees are fifty to a hundred years old. They didn’t become giants and create beautiful canopies in a day. It took decades. But over time they have become big, strong, beautiful trees through slow, but consistent growth.
It made me think about how we, and I, approach our own growth.
Rushing to imaginary goalposts
I don’t know about you, but I try and rush growth and improvement.
I catch myself rushing to imaginary goalposts. I have big dreams, but I put them on a 5-year plan. I have career goals, but I feel like I’m “behind”. I have an ideal weight and body fat percentage I want to get to, but I want to achieve it by the end of the year.
The goals are good, but are the timelines beneficial?
Trees don’t have growth timelines.
I don’t think there is a clear answer. I think things like SMART goals, and project timelines are necessary. I don’t think we should approach life haphazardly, but I also think we should evaluate the value of timelines and what tasks or goals need them.
Goal posts or milestones?
The answer to whether a goal or objective should have a timeline can be answered by asking two simple questions:
- Is this a requirement for something else?
- Is this over when I finish it, or will I have to keep working on it?
If the answer “yes” to either question, you should create a timeline around the project. However, if the answer is “no” to both questions, it’s likely what you are trying to accomplish is a milestone, not a goalpost.
Milestones shouldn’t be held to timelines. Instead, you would be better served putting more effort into the habits and activities that will help achieve consistent growth over time.
Here’s an example:
Goal: I want to reach 10% body fat
Question 1: Is this a requirement for something else? no
Question 2: Will I need to work on this after I achieve the goal? yes
Conclusion: Reaching 10% body fat is a milestone, not a goal. It is the result of healthy habits and activities I fill my life and will continue to do in order to maintain that body fat percentage afterward.
The secret to success
Trees just grow. When they stop growing they die.
They live and go through the different seasons of life. Literal seasons. Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. Some of those seasons are times of growth while others are about survival.
While less cyclical, we go through similar seasons in life. Seasons of flourishing and easy growth and seasons of hardship and survival. Yet, unlike trees, we try to grow through all seasons and beat ourselves up when we aren’t progressing.
Can you imagine a tree being upset for not growing through winter?
Rich Roll has a quote I love.
“The prize never goes to the fastest guy, it goes to the guy who slows down the least.” – Rich Roll
It’s not about rushing, it’s running the race with endurance and never giving up.
The secret to success and lifelong happiness lies in the idea of consistency instead of velocity.
It’s about consistently working towards bettering ourselves, improving our habits, gaining more knowledge, being a better partner, and a healthier individual, and less about how quickly we can get there or how much suffering we can endure to expedite the process.
I also think that if we spend time enjoying the journey and focusing on consistency in the things that feel important, we will become big, strong, beautiful oaks in the process.
