When a vine keeper is looking after a plant s/he regularly removes sections of the vine before it has had a chance to grow.
Perfectly fine fruit isn’t even given the chance to be develop.
The vine keeper knows that, if left to grow, the newer fruit will draw resources away from the more mature, higher quality fruit.
Over time, the unpruned vine will eventually succumb to ‘systemic mediocrity’ because it simply can’t support that much fruit.
There aren’t the resources available.
The good fruit suffers in order to support the less mature fruit.
Our lives are a bit like those vines.
Too much in / on them creates that ‘systemic mediocrity’ throughout.
We end up with bodies we’re not happy with.
Work performance that isn’t what we’d like.
Not being the partner, parent or friend we wish we could be.
Often because there’s ‘too much’ going on in our lives.
Being pulled too much, in too many directions.
When we say yes to everything, we’re saying yes to nothing.
Often one of the biggest skills we can develop is the ability to say “no”.
To stop, or at least limit, the things in our life that pull us away from what is truly important.
As always, much easier said than done.
But doable.
The key, as we’ve mentioned before, is to decide what is truly important to YOU.
And what isn’t.
No right or wrong answer.
It’s your life.
And when things come up that aren’t really important, or take you away from what is, then practice that saying “no”.
It might mean that you have a few less pounds in your pocket, but what use are they if the truly important stuff isn’t how you’d like it to be?
Much love,
Jon ‘Just Say No’ Hall and Matt ‘Zammo’ Nicholson
