Forget the Low Hanging Fruit

As defined in Wikipedia, "Pruning is a horticultural and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds or roots.  Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling or directing growth), improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing nursery specimens for transplanting and both harvesting and increasing the yield or quality of flowers or fruits."

The air we breath is the result of plants remaining healthy enough to produce photosynthesis and the air we rely on each second of the day.  These plants stay "healthy" through pruning...more simply put, getting rid of the bad things in their life.  Gone are the branches that are no longer productive.  Removed are the branches heading in the wrong direction and not shaped towards the important ingredients such as sun and water.  Chopped are the relationships that no longer allow the plant to continue to grow and become better.  This is not subjective, but factual...a plant will not grow, be productive, and flourish without these elements eliminated on a regular basis.  The difference between us and plants is that we are solely responsible for this necessary pruning!

It is one of the hardest tasks we have- letting go and saying good-bye.  However, there is no growth, health, or happiness unless we take a sharp knife to the things in our life that are no longer healthy and productive.  The internet and social media would suggest we need "more", I recommend we focus on less...it is time to cut, cut, cut.  In every aspect of my life I have spent this year getting rid of unwanted things and relationships.  Taking my own advise, I realized that if things aren't moving forward, they are moving backward...and the crap that is moving backward or stuck in the middle just needs to go because it is preventing me from enjoying the people and things that are moving forward.  My epiphany has been that by not doing this before my health has been compromised, my growth capped, and my overall happiness minimized.  I spent too much time focusing on the people and things that just didn't matter.  I began to understand that while saying good-bye to people was hard, it was also natural.  Just as plants grow in a specific direction, so do we.  Removing those that aren't growing with us and keeping us away from falling branches is not only necessary, but essential.

While I have cut aggressively, I realize that I have not gone far enough...it will take more pruning.  That is ok and I can celebrate in the results to-date.  I can now see what had to go and can see through my own lens what needs to go next.  I recently took my LinkedIn contacts from 1350 contacts to 181 relationships.  The act of going through and firing these contacts was empowering.  I also realized that this number probably needs to get to 100, but I have some "watering and sunshine" to do before realizing who makes the next cut...I need to reach out to all of these folks and turn them into active relationships.  I could have never have done this with all the dead branches I started with because the sheer number of "dead branches" would have constrained any attempt at advancement.  I am excited about the evolution and happiness I can get out of the parts of this plant that really mean the most.  

As we get closer to New Year's resolutions, there is no better time to start looking at every aspect of life and doing some much needed pruning!  Who are friends, I mean really friends?  What clothes do you actually wear?  Where do you spend your time?  There are hundreds of questions that I will be asking as I continue to prune.  

MDM