It's not the harvest, but the seeds that matter...

In our quest for personal growth it is easy to become distracted and discouraged when we look back over the years and try to trace our results. Unkept resolutions, unmet targets, unfulfilled goals can have a daunting effect on your desire to keep making the effort. Failures, of whatever magnitude, overtake the psyche and manifest in a reduced estimate of our value. The fact is, the reason we work so hard is so that we can generate the results we seek - family vacations, a new home, a larger customer base or greater market share. Nothing motivates us more than what we'll get at the end of process. We envisage, we engage, we produce for the sole purpose of reaping the harvest that comes at the end of our labours. But the harsh reality is that nobody guarantees us the results we look for.

Oh don't get me wrong....the old adage "as a man sows, so shall he reap" still holds true. No-one would readily deny that that the quality of our harvest is directly linked to the quality and quanitiy of the seed. And to take it even further, life has taught me that indeed very often we reap more than we sow......be that good or evil. No doubt, we "sow to the wind and reap a whirlwind." But there are times when the seeds we sow fall by the way-side or on fallow ground; You may plant and neglect to tend........ There's no telling just how many ways the harvest can be affected. It's a truth we must all prepare for and learn to live with.

And so, though I have come to realize that the results I produce are crucial to my material and emotional well-being, I have also learned that though we may work to change the seed, the soil and the sower (ourselves) to improve our chances of success, there are many times when the results we seek are outside of our control. And in those instances I resort to the wisdom of the nineteenth century author and poet, Robert, Louis Stephenson, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant." Talk about saving me some anxiety!! What better formula is there for taking life's anxieties down a notch and being gentle with yourself?

And so, for me,  each day now now is not so much about taking inventory of the harvest. It's not so much about the things I gained.....how many points I scored, how many targets met or goals achieved. These days it's much more about the seeds I planted....the relationships I invested in, the effort I made to ignite hope in someone else's heart, the faith I engendered in a dispairing friend, the money I saved or gave away....Yes, it may seem counter-intuitive (aren't most of life's deepest truths, anyway?), but you will find that the best measure of your day's productivity is not the size of the harvest but the seeds you sow. Remember, the harvest is not guaranteed. It behooves us, therefore, to focus our attention on the seed - its quality, the way we scatter them and the timing of our planting.