It holds you in a place like little chains

A lot of people like to plant, but not many like weeding.

When I was a child, I used to go with my grandmother to the dacha. Dacha was a little piece of land that was allocated to former Soviet Union families by the government to grow their own produce. Our dacha was about 2 hours from the edge of Samara city, by bus. The bus was full, often with no available place to seat. So we would be very tired by the time we arrive at our stop point.

Once we would get off the bus at our bus stop, which was next to the field of sunflowers, my grandmother and I would walk for about 40 minutes, passing many other dachas to get to ours. We would carry with us boiled eggs, bread, cucumber, and water, which was our food for the day.

One of my tasks at the dacha was picking up “koloratskii zhuk”, a little bug on potatoes. In English, it is called the Colorado potato beetle. There were many of them. I was very scared of them, but I soldiered on.

I would put on big gloves and would look for them for hours in the blazing sun. My grandmother would talk proudly to other adults about how great I was at picking those bugs. My other task was removing weeds. I didn’t like it either. You have to go on your knees and pull them out. But grandmother said it had to be done for produce to grow.

Noteworthy Highlight

This was a challenging program because we were attempting to drive significant improvements through a single person: Abhi. We deliberately chose a strategy that required Abhi to learn as few new skills as possible. If you are an Insider or Legacy member watch the program here.

Almost nobody likes weeding, be it plants, personal behaviors, or people. Removing toxic or ineffective personal behaviors is hard. I see it every day. I am constantly weeding my behaviors. I also see it when working with clients. For example, as we were recently working with Speak Without Limits’ (our Executive Presence and Communication coaching program) cohort, especially in one-on-ones, we were working on removing all kinds of “weeds” in their speaking, and then we planted new behaviors so clients’ influence could grow.

Firing people from your life or your business is also tough. Be it clients, employees, or friends. But weeding is necessary. For you to continue breaking out of your orbit, you require to have a lot of energy and continue to expand your thinking. For example, if you are surrounded by toxic people who are draining your energy and poisoning your environment, you decrease your chances for success considerably.

One thing about weeds is they have the ability to grow more pervasively and at a higher speed than fruits and vegetables. If you give them the opportunity, they will take over the territory aggressively.

I recall a girl I met who became my best friend when I was 16-21. When I just met her, some things she said and some words she used (not vulgar but not as polished as my vocabulary) were jarring to me. They were unpleasant and unpolished. But because she persisted in her efforts to become my friend (and I surrendered way too easily), I heard those things enough from her that eventually, I caught myself using those same words. It became normal. When you see a weed, it is important to get rid of it right away because not only will it take over the territory aggressively, but it will also soon look like normal vegetation to you.

That alertness you feel when you see it for the first time, take advantage of it. 

Your life, right now, likely has a lot of “weeds” that slow you down or hold you in a place like little chains. It is around your legs and hands, but you don’t even realize it. How long can you let “weeds” grow until they will take over your life and make you practically ineffective?

Take a look at poor thinking, an example of “weeds” in your life. It can originate from a trivial conversation, from media, or from just “mirror neurons,” “monkey see, monkey do.”

Poor thinking takes control very fast.

Compare it to quality thinking. Ability to think differently from the crowd. You are not bombarded with quality thinking. You have to seek it out. And you have to be able to identify it when you find it. You have to make an effort to deliberately seek it out and sustain it.

Speaking of quality thinking, we are known for quality, original thinking. Not derivative rehashing of other people’s frameworks. And we don’t only share quality, original thinking with you. We teach you how to become a thinker like that.

To start your journey of strengthening your ability to think critically and develop original, tailored strategies and solutions, join as an Insider or Legacy member. Enroll below (scroll down to membership options):

www.strategytraining.com