By: Carlin Day
Here is another example of farming without the farm. See my first post on farming without the farm here.
When should a person start?
A new farmer is planning on having the best crop ever. He wants everything to be perfect. He does all the research on what seeds to use. He prepares the soil with rich fertilizer and cultivates the soil getting rid of all the weeds. He finds out all the chemicals to spray to get the best results once the plant is up. He creates a chart with how much sunshine and rain he will need. He even goes out and buys all the right harvest equipment so he is ready to bring in the bumper crop. After all the research, it is time to plant.
The land is to dry and the temperature is too cool. His perfect chart says it is the time to plant but he knows there is not enough water for the seeds to sprout. The farmer checks the forecast and finds out that the weather is expected to be ideal next week. Next week comes and it has rained and it is now too wet. The next week comes and it is now too cool. As time passes, the days get shorter, the rains begin to fall daily and, by now, it is too late to plant. This year’s crop is a failure and it was never even planted. It never had a chance!
The perfect crop has turned into a failure. As the farmer drives around, he realizes that the land around him has plants coming up all in a row. The other farmers land is producing? What happened? How could they have planted in all the rain? How could they have planted when it was too dry?
How to Start
In the example of the new farmer who wanted to make the best crop, he would have been better just asking when to plant and plant the crop. The crop would have grown just like his neighbors. Instead of planting, he focused on perfection and found all kinds of reasons it was not the right time. Just like on the farm, there are so many ways we see this in life.
When to be kind – all the time, not only when people are kind to you
When to lose weight – all the time meaning eat healthy and live healthy
When to give money – all the time, be generous, regardless of circumstances
When to start your business – start now, just don’t start the perfect business
When to start running – in about 20 or 30 feet you can get to running speed. That will be a start.
Focus on Value
If you can focus on value, you can start today. If you are focused on important things, you will be elevating value. If you begin working on things that matter, you will be growing, and this is the start that will end in valuable results.
Just like farming, in everything you do, plant today, harvest in the future. Planting daily has great results. Trying to find perfect harvests is much harder than planting. Plant and the harvest will come. Don’t be like the farmer who waited and now sees everyone with a successful crop. Plant today!! Start Today!!
