Say it Proudly: I’m a Weed

In a previous post, I looked at something we see all the time, weeds reclaiming what man paved over. Looking at it from the weed’s perspective I saw a lesson in perseverance and determination.

Now I’m thinking about the weeds, thinking how I could apply that lesson to my life and career. I’ve never been a fan but I know some people have mantras, sayings they repeat that give them strength, others have affirmations, positive words of self encouragement. So I came up with my own: I am a weed!

As soon as I said those words the irony hit me. Most people want to eliminate weeds, they try to isolate and kill them, they’re viewed as annoyances. My words were ironic because it occurred to me that a lot of people may see me that way, well I hope they don’t want to kill me, but they could possibly see me as an annoyance.

When I am in the implementation phase of any plan it’s all I want to talk about, it’s all I focus on. When I wrote my last book, What Next, that’s all I wanted to talk about, it was all I could think about. I imagine that people can get tired of hearing about my plan du jour and I’m sorry but it’s my only choice as I move forward.

Sometimes when you put up with the annoyance you’re rewarded. Weeds bloom and these wildflowers (much better name than weed) can be just as beautiful as an actual flower that people want in their gardens. Doing a quick Google search I found this picture on a blog site from Singapore the caption said “even weeds have pretty flowers.”

Perspective is important and I have a new outlook on weeds (I mean wildflowers). There will be disappointments and trade-offs when I become pre-occupied by my next venture but I will be rewarded when my weeds burst to life in a rainbow of color. When others want to pave over your dreams, you know you have the perseverance to push through and bloom.

Share what it is you’re struggling with and believe that when it’s over, when you can look back, you’ll see that, in hindsight, it wasn’t that bad.