I am getting impatient with the process of making changes. How can I make it happen faster??

To answer a question with a question - are you sure that's what you want? Think about this...

Wanting to fill his yard with the smell of lilacs, the man planted several bushes in his garden. After a few weeks, he was frustrated because they hadn't blossomed and he pulled them up and replanted them in another part of the garden.

“Perhaps they’ll get more sun here and then blossom,” he thought. A month later, they still hadn’t blossomed. So he pulled them up and replanted in another area of the garden, this time angrier than before. In the fall, the bushes still hadn’t blossomed so he pulled them out and threw them away!

Immediate gratification. The American society is programmed for a pill to take away the headache, a candy bar for instant energy, a credit card so you can buy what you want right now (never mind that you have to pay for it for months or years to come!). We want what we want and we want it when we want it.

We forget that the world is made of cycles and processes. The lilac bushes needed a season to settle into the earth and send down roots. Nature gives us the wonderful example of seeds needing to build root systems before they sprout above ground and grow into the vegetable, herb, plant, or
tree they were meant to be.

When you want to become more of Who You Were Meant To Be, have you been pulling up the roots, replanting in what you thought might be sunnier spots, only to find that you aren’t getting the blossoms you yearn for?Perhaps it would be best if you want more of what you can be to take the time to nurture a root system.

Get grounded. Take quiet time in your life to be with yourself. Develop your own root system of knowing who you are, what you believe, what you want. Journal your thoughts and emotions so you can reflect on what you think and feel. Explore through books and seminars the possibilities and
potentials available to you. Talk with friends.

Make sure that you are not operating out of anxiousness, frustration, anger, stress or fatigue. The choices we make at emotional times are often not thought out, well processed through our “root system” and therefore don’t usually reflect Who We Were Meant To Be. They tend instead to
reflect the chaos of the storm going on around us. Allow the storm front to move through and move on. Just notice the emotions, feel them at the moment. There is no need to take action, other than to protect yourself if necessary from the elements that might be dangerous to you. When the storm has passed, the calm settles in. Review what has happened.

Give it all time to process within you before making decisions to sprout into the new business, relationship, home or whatever new directions you are choosing. The Chinese bamboo, Moso, takes several years to build it’s root system before ever appearing above ground. However, it’s root system is so strong that it will grow to 60 to 75 feet tall in the five years following it’s appearance. The bamboo will grow to eight inches in diameter and is a strong and powerful plant.

Gib Cooper is a bamboo gardener. He offers this old bamboo gardener’s saying for us to ponder.... The first year they sleep. The second year they creep. The third year they leap!

When you approach a new beginning in your life, I believe you would do well to remember the wisdom of the Chinese gardener. Take the time to plant and nurture the seeds of your new beginning, choose wisely the plant you wish to become and then watch as your power and strength grow in proportion to the root system you have developed. Give up immediate gratification for the long term pleasure, satisfaction, and strength of the moso forest!