Because one side of my house gets full sun most of the day, my spring flowers bloom before everyone else’s. I have neighbors who come over to catch a glimpse of them in full bloom while their own little bulbs are still struggling to push their way out of the ground. As I wrote about previously, I thoroughly enjoy my beautiful flowers and of course, am happy that my neighbors do too.
I’m also lucky enough to have the best lawn-care guy. His attention to detail and the quality of his work are why I’m the object of ‘lawn-envy”. He takes great care of my lawn, shrubs, and other landscaping. I’m certain when I sell my house one day, that it will be its curb appeal that seals the deal.
However, the time to enjoy my spring flowers has come to an end. Their blooms have fallen off or in some cases, have been eaten by the deer that frequently roam our neighborhood. It’s time to prepare for the summer.
I normally have my summer flowers planted by Mother’s Day. This year, Connecticut has been experiencing winter-like weather for the past couple of weeks and so my summer planting had to be postponed. The weather today took a turn back to spring and I thought I would get started.
Immediately upon looking at my once full garden of blooms, I was overwhelmed with a tangled mess of greenery, dead leaves, and foreign objects that made their way into the bed from the blast of high winds we’ve been having lately. With clippers in hand, I began chopping my way through the maze. As I began to clear away some of the debris, thoughts ran rampant through my mind. One in particular rang true and I thought I’d share this one with you.
Usually when I am preparing for a gardening project, I put on my ‘gardening outfit’. This consists of whatever pair of ratty pants I can find, some sort of T-shirt, and a hat. But because I decided to begin my “garden spring cleaning” on a whim today, I was dressed in regular clothes. This did not stop me however. Snip, snip, chop, chop. With no particular plan or direction, I just hacked away at each of the stems. Until…I got carried away and nearly snipped my soon-to-be gladiolas. Thankfully, something made me pause and I avoided this tragedy.
(Ok…you’re probably wondering about now – so where’s the lesson Jennifer? I promise, it’s coming!)
At that moment, I realized that the way in which I was clearing my flower garden was very similar to how I approach many projects in my business and life in general. I assess the situation quickly and then get right to the solution because I can see the potential in the end result. I see a great idea in the making and I can’t wait to see it come to fruition. Sounds good, right? Creative. Dedicated. Driven.
Not so much, I’m realizing. You see, had I taken a few more minutes to truly look at the size of this project, I would have 1) changed my clothes knowing I’d be getting pretty dirty, and 2) recognized that there were other flowers embedded amongst the dead blooms. I would’ve realized that formulating a quick plan to complete this project may have alleviated some of the overwhelm I was feeling. And lastly, I might have recognized that taking the time to truly clear out the old to let in the new is not something that needs to be rushed through.
The thing is, I’m a multi-tasker. I do so many things at once, I scare myself sometimes. Friends and colleagues often wonder how I get so much done in such a short amount of time. My only response is that I have learned to do many things at once. This is partially driven by being a single parent raising two children and partially because I like getting things done. So when faced with a big project, I’m initially overwhelmed, and then dive right in, sometimes throwing caution to the wind. Somebody might say this is genius at work (ok, maybe nobody would say that!), but others would say that starting a project without a clear plan on how to accomplish it is likely to lead to frustration and perhaps failure.
I don’t know who is right as I’ve experienced both. Today, clearing my flower garden was frustrating and overwhelming. Did I finish it? Yes. Am I excited to plant my summer flowers? Yes. Could I have done it better? Yes. Will I do it differently next year? Not likely… My drive to clear the garden and ready it for summer flowers will surely result in the same plan. Snip, snip, chop, chop. Oops…no gladiolas!
My lesson from this experience, as I see it anyway is to learn to enjoy the process and be patient. Would it have been so bad if only half the garden got cleared away today? Could I have spent a few moments remembering what those lovely spring flowers looked like and the joy they brought me before I hacked them away? What was the rush to get it done anyway?
Time goes by so quickly. Let’s all take the time to enjoy the little things, like spring blooms, a little longer.
How do you start your projects? Are you like me, a “just do it” kind of person? Or, do you take the time to consider and plan out how you will complete it? I think there’s room enough for both kinds of people frankly…the “do-ers” and the “thinkers”, don’t you?
