In his teachings, Earl Nightingale talked about each of us being like farmers and compared our lives to a plot of land. It is up to us to cultivate that land, to plant the seeds, to weather the storms and to bring in our harvest.
Whatever happens above, under and around our plot of land happens to everyone. If there’s rain – it rains on everyone’s land. If there is a draught – everyone has to deal with it. How the farmer prepares the land determines how those universal events affect it in many cases. Land can be cultivated so that it has the right elevation for drainage. It can also be irrigated with alternate hydration sources. Those are decisions (and investments) the farmer makes in the land in order to give it the best possible chance to produce the crops desired. This is what we call preparation.
The farmer also must decide what kind of crops he (or she) wants to harvest. After all, what comes up from the ground is going to be determined by what they put in the ground. We can’t be surprised if we get wheat instead of corn if we didn’t plant corn seed. We shouldn’t expect an oak tree if a pecan seed is what we planted. But that is quite often what we do with the plot of land called our life. We want a certain outcome (crop) from our life but we don’t plant those seeds. Then we are disappointed when we get a result we didn’t want. This is what we call planning.
For us to achieve the life we want, we must both prepare and plan. If we over-plan and under-prepare, when the rains come, we will not be ready. Conversely, if we over-prepare but under-plan, we could be ready for anything but never begin. It takes both, preparation and planning.
If we want sustaining health, we must prepare our life’s soil and plant seeds of health. If we want abundance financially, we must do the same. Whatever you want from this experience we call life, you have to prepare for that success and plant those seeds. The planning determines the outcome but the preparation is what allows it to happen.
One of my favorite miracles from nature is that an entire forest has its genesis within a single seed. The miracles from our l lives begins with our days. What seeds have you planted? Are they going to bring the life forest you desire? Have you prepared your life soil to sustain it?
Live today like you want tomorrow to be.