Be a master gardener

As I read the classic, “As a Man Thinketh” I am reminded again how nature, farming and gardening, model such practical clues to our own personal success – if we would pay attention.

I’ve shared before how important I believe it is to guard your mind, whether that’s from the people you surround yourself with, what you read, what and whom you listen to, what you watch, etc. and to be conscious of what you allow in.

As James Allen so beautifully illustrates, “A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”

“Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life.”

What you sow, so shall you reap!

Are you being mindful of what is being planted in the garden of your mind?

How can you expect roses when you keep planting dandelions?

As he later writes, “nothing can come from corn, except corn.”

Isn’t funny how we think something else will grow when we are planting seeds of a very different nature.

You are the master gardener. Own it. Take 100% responsibility for your life as you have sown it thus far.

And… perhaps it’s time to start new, turn the soil, add some good compost and plant new seeds so that your life more closely resembles that which you are consciously choosing to plant.

How empowering knowing that you have complete control of what your life looks like.

It all begins with a seed.