Rob Moshe

 

A businessman decides one day that he wants to create an inheritance for his family. Something that will help them in the generations to come. He choses to grow a forest.  He has plenty of arid land and if he plants the forest now, in 50 years it will be a valuable resource for his descendants.

He buys 1000 Saplings and hires a worker to plant them.

The week that the project is to begin he is called out of town on business. So he shows his worker a map of his land and tells him to plant the trees while he is gone.

A week later the businessman returns anxious to see his future forest.

He asks the worker to take him to where he planted the saplings. The worker proudly takes him to the lake where he did his planting. When they arrive at the spot the businessman only sees a handful of saplings by the lake. He asks were the rest are. The worker with a confused look on his face tells the businessman that he has planted all the saplings here by the lake. It seemed like such a good place to put them right by the water, so no one would have to carry buckets of water to care for them.

The businessman asked the worker.

“Didn’t you realize that the tide would wash away the sapling from the shoreline? And besides, there is barely enough room here by the lake for 20 trees, how could you plant all 1000 right here?”

The following week after learning what was involved in planting and growing the businessman bought another 1000 saplings and explained to the worker what the forest was to look like in the future, where to plant the trees and how to care for them. Throughout the process the business man was there supervising and supporting the workers efforts.

And so it became that the dream of the businessman was realized. Fifty years later those saplings had grown into mighty pine trees. As the trees grew they released their own seeds into the land and now there were far more trees than those original 1000. It was a fine forest providing lumber, saplings and other materials for many generations to come.

Do you have vision? Do you hold a picture in your mind of what your future life will be? And if you do how is that vision expressing it self in your daily actions.

In the story the businessman is your vision of a meaningful future. A realization that action has to be taken know to ensure material/physical/spiritual success down the road.

The worker is our actions. The doing required to achieve our visions and goals.

In the story our worker (actions) failed the first time around because our businessman (vision) went away and left the worker without sufficient information. This is representative of actions taken on a fleeting vision. You here or think of something that inspires you and you rush to take action on it, but your action is without solid awareness of what is required. The result is failure, frustration and lost effort.

In the end our businessman realizes that it is more than just having a vision, he must deepen his awareness of what is involved in bringing that vision to realization. And with that clear understanding of what is involved the worker can take the proper action, and be guided by the businessman holding the vision ever present.

YOU must SEE and KNOW the forest, before you plant that first sapling.

Coaching Questions.

What is your goal?

Why is it important to you?

What information do you need to make that goal happen?

What are the action steps required to achieve your goal?

What is the first action step?

Have you ever had that moment, where you suddenly decide you are ready for change?

It might be that point of deepest frustration, where you will no longer tolerate the state that you are in, or it might be when you are at a high point in your life and you decide that you just want to go for more.

Next thing you know you are visualising the realization of your goal where you are (put in your own vision here) and you are ready to succeed.

Day 1

All out effort towards the realization your goal, you are not just accomplishing the goal, you ARE the goal

Day 2

Day gets of two a bad start. Half way through the day you remember your goal and put a little effort in.

Day 3

The day was more than stressful. You go to bed at the days end, and just as you are nodding off you remember about your goal.

As you drift off to sleep your goal joins the other goals that have come before it. It becomes just another dream.

You had such great intentions.  What went wrong?

The proverb goes “The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step”.

Why one step?

Why not say “The journey of 1000 miles takes 5,280,000. Get moving” ??

Because you would try to cover as many steps in that first day that by the end of that day you would be exhausted, and after three days of pushing yourself really hard you would give up.

As important as it is to envision the success of your goal, it is equally important to plan the steps to get there.

Once you know what your goal is and you have planed the process to achieve that goal, then you begin to only focus on the process “the one step”.

And as those steps add up you start to do them subconsciously, they become habits.

One easy step at a time, and before you know it you will have reached your goal.

If I would ask you if you can walk 1000 miles you might reflexively think it quite unlikely. Interestingly though, the average person takes 4000-6000 steps a day. Which means that in the past 3-4 years you walked 1000miles.

You didn’t even realize it, but you did it ONE STEP AT A TIME.

Often the most simple of questions can not only unleash the greatest impact in our lives but it can also be the most difficult to answer.

Often when you ask a person “What are your dreams?” you receive little more than a blank stare. It’s almost as if you just short circuited their brain. I know that for many of you if you ask yourself the question, you will begin to feel a tightening in your chest, or a lump in your throat, you wont even know where to begin.

This is a far cry from the response you get when you ask a child the same question. A child will give you a wide smile and then excitedly share with you all their dreams and aspirations. We were like that too at one point, but somewhere along the way Read the rest of this entry »

So far since September I have lost close to 2o lbs. I’m enjoying that my pants are getting baggy, and that people are starting to comment on my weight loss. I am also benefiting from increased stamina, and strength, when I play squash (my favorite sport).

Now here is the secret.. Read the rest of this entry »