“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu.
In these gloomy COVID-19 times, it’s important for our mental well-being that we look for and acknowledge little things that lift our spirits and bring some cheer into our lives. In the past week, I had a couple of everyday events involving daffodils that inspired me and made me smile.
Last Sunday, it snowed a great deal where I live. Therefore, my wife and I decided to stop in and watch a feel-good movie and enjoy the delights of the movie night box of goodies that our niece had brought us for Christmas. We decided to watch Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone.
Earlier in the day my wife had bought some daffodil buds which hadn’t started to flower. I noticed them in a vase next to the tv when we started to watch the DVD. The film lasted just over 2 hours. When it had finished, I happened to notice that one of the daffodil buds had fully flowered. I thought it wonderful that during a film about magic, the daffodil had evolved and blossomed. We hadn’t noticed the process but were able to enjoy the result of its evolution.
Later in the week, whilst there was still lots of snow on the ground, there was a bright blue sky and a full day of sunshine. It was a beautiful scene. Whilst out and about I saw some daffodils in flower in someone’s garden. They were the first ones that I had seen in the outdoors this year. It lifted my spirits as it reminded me that spring is just around the corner and some brighter, warmer days lay ahead. Like there is some light at the end of this dark Covid-19 tunnel.
I included a story about daffodils in my first book Be First Class. It’s called The Daffodil Garden and I have included it below:
The Daffodil Garden
Every year, high in the San Bernardino mountain range of Southern California, five acres of beautiful daffodils burst into bloom. Amazingly, this special spot, known as “The Daffodil Garden,” was planted by one person, Gene Bauer, one bulb at a time, beginning in 1958. This story originally appeared in Jaroldeen Edwards’ book Celebration! The story contains details of a mother being taken to see the daffodils in bloom by her daughter Julie.
Apparently, Gene Bauer’s house (which was adjacent to the field of daffodils) had a poster on it which said: –
Answers to the questions I know that you are asking: –
- 50,000 bulbs
- One at a time
- By one woman
- 2 hands, 2 feet
- And very little brain
- Began in 1958
Gene Bauer planted one bulb at a time to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, this unknown old woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of magnificent beauty and inspiration by planting at least one bulb every day for many years until she got to 50,000 planted bulbs.
The life lessons her daffodil garden taught are:
- Learn to move towards our goals and desires one step at a time (often just one baby-step at a time)
- Ensure that we get pleasure from and love the doing
- Learn to use the accumulation of time
This is what the mother said to her daughter after seeing the flowers in full bloom: -.
“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Julie, “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her direct way, “Start tomorrow, Mum,” she said, “It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of our yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, how can I put this to use today?”
This story also reminds us that we all have it in our gift to change the part of the world and environments that we occupy with our unique contribution.
The story also teaches us that even in these challenging times we can to make progress on our visions and goals with disciplined and determined actions. I know from first-hand experience that over time small consistent actions lead to big results.
A habit that I recommend that you develop is to regularly review the progress you are making towards your personal goals. This will help you to make any adjustments to any action plans you have. Part of my formula for achieving goals is that I break them down into manageable chunks. This philosophy played a major part in helping me to write and publish two books in four years whilst working on other projects.
Life is all about margins. There’s often a tiny difference between winning and losing, perceived success and failure, hitting or missing a target. I’m sure you can think of examples from your own life experiences where the tiniest of margins determined the outcome of a situation. Thinking a goal is too large can make us feel overwhelmed, it can keep us stuck and stop us taking action to achieve it.
We all mistakenly think we need to keep taking massive action to get a result or make change happen in our life. The fact is small incremental steps accumulate into massive progress when combined with sustained disciplined action. One small action every day towards a specific goal leads to 365 separate actions (366 in this leap year!). Achievement somehow seems bigger when you look at it like that!
This week, why not take a few moments out to reflect and consider what action step(s) you could take to make progress towards a personal task, goal or vision that you have.
To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk