My clumsy gardening taught me an interesting life lesson

Each year at season's end, I chop off my clematis—because that's what someone who knows more than me told me I should do—and it lays dormant and rests for a season.

(Dormancy is important! We can learn from our plants. What does rest look like in your life?)

Then when the weather warms up and it starts to grow again, I've learned if I don't use a trellis, it will grow everywhere and fall all over itself.

(No trellis = no support system, no framework = going here, there, and everywhere...and eventually maybe falling over.) 

If I put up the trellis too late, it's difficult. Without any structure from the beginning, the clematis has already gone rogue, and it's gnarly to wrestle it into place onto the trellis.

(Adding support system/framework too late = similar results as no framework at all, plus time spent wrestling things under control.)  

So learning from that, last year I put the trellis up earlier.

Job done, I then proceeded to...mostly ignore it.

So eventually I noticed that despite the trellis, the clematis was growing way over to one side. And then started climbing into a bush.

(Support systems/frameworks help, but aren't much good if they're just put in place and then mostly ignored.)

So this year when I put the trellis out, I vowed to pay attention to it. And so each day when I walk my little Gunny, I look for new growth. And I direct the new shoots back onto the trellis so they learn to grab onto that.

(Support systems/frameworks work best if you're paying attention and actively tending to them.) 

And it got me thinking about what I do as a coach, and where in our lives we set out to do really incredible things, really beautiful things...

...But we forget about the framework.

🌱 We don't put a trellis around us.
🌱 We don't get the people around us that we need.
🌱 We don't surround ourselves with what can help us grow in the right directions. 

• Need some people to run with? (Check out my new Group Coaching)
• Need help untangling the mass of vines in your head? (Pick My Brain)
• Need help with Organization & Life Hacks? (No-cost 6/19 Workshop)

It doesn't have to be coaching with Cornerstone. It could be anything.

Just make sure you have people around you that have been where you're going (or are also going where you're going), and create a framework around you that you can keep grasping onto for support.

So who are the people in your life who can call out, "Hey, I see you going this way...didn't you want to go that way?"

Find them and put them to work for you! (And in turn, do the same for them!)