There is a Greek proverb which says:
“A society grows great when old men plant trees who shade, they know they shall never sit in.”
It points to the idea that we ought to be radically kind or magnanimous—especially when it requires us to step back from an immediate, short-term, high priority mission or responsibility to honor a different sort of necessity. . . the sort of necessity that you know, in your gut, could cultivate something beautiful.
There's a strip of trees that runs wild outside my home, brimming with brush just the way I like it.
On an 8–10 foot tree is an old bird's nest. I'm fairly certain that it has been there for years, even though it looks like a strong storm would just knock it over.
Yet somehow, perhaps because the canes are flexible, the nest shifts back and forth with wild abandon without ever toppling off.
Maybe there is a message here about being tempted to do good things, to prioritize, and to finish what you start.
You see, my greatest failing remains my inability to truly prioritize which priority is greatest, to really finish what I start in an efficient manner and go on to the next thing, so that by the end of the day, I can be more reliable, creative, loving, supportive, and authentic: walking the walk for living out the principle, “Finish what you start.”
Don’t we all want these things?
What's difficult, is that as an American society, we have a strong focus on linear growth.
It makes sense. Schools have their report cards. If you're progressing for an athletic activity, that growth might seem linear. A linear focus is invaluable for tracking projects at the office or at the gym.
Yet for life?
For creative endeavors you're trying to do on top of everything else?
For handling anxiety that crushes down when it's finally time to press through to your goal?
With a strictly linear understanding of progress, it's on you to carve out the vacuum from which your single-minded progress should go—until deficiencies in other areas pile up, and you have to pull back from extremes.
[Digression: All right, so for a moment we paused; my audio engineer and I just chatting about family members who have superpowers, whether to identify a note just by hearing it; or a photographic memory; or the memory to dictate and go back to earlier parts of the dictation from memory.]
In light of others’ “super powers,” it's easy to lose focus. A natural response is to try less hard than you could at the things that come easy to you, because they don’t seem to come quite easy enough; or to double down and just focus on those linear goals you know you can execute most efficiently—ignoring the fact that the reason you're efficient is probably because of effort you put in way earlier in the game. This in turn implies that the best thing you can do, may be to lean into a new learning curve now.
Right?
It goes back to the saying from the Book of Proverbs which says, “All labor benefits the laborer.”
Isn't that profoundly comforting?
If you accept that as an ultimate truth, and if you're putting in good effort in some way or another, your present area of dedicated effort is benefiting you—if you're open to it.
With that in mind, maybe it is fruitful as a thought experiment to view progress as less of a linear progression or competition between linear progressions, and more as a nest.
With a nest, you will see a bird tuck in a piece of paper or a wrapper, straw, maybe a gold chain, right?
Either way, that nest that it might be bobbing and swaying on a short tree was made up of generally things that were once straight or could have been straight. Yet by curving them and bending them together and winding them together, birds build their own shelter for themselves, for their eggs, for their chicks, for the next generation. You might even have a case of a nest that lasts.
Think of that for your own life.
I challenge you to reflect on the areas of progress you are building into your nest.
I'm not talking about your tangible home right now, though. That could be part of it if that is meaningful for you. But look at your priorities.
Look at:
The goals you’re guilting yourself for.
The goals you’re not guilting yourself for.
The areas where you can clearly feel that this labor is benefiting you.
The areas where you can’t see how the labor could possibly be benefitting you.
See how they build together into something more.
Last but not least, feel free to leave a comment! Do you experience similar struggles? What is one technique that works for you?
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