This weekend, I decided to do some gardening in our garden. I have postponed it since spring, but now I have the time to tend to it. I love gardening, which I recently discovered about myself until we bought this house. We live in the countryside where most of the people also love gardening and have beautiful gardens. That actually was what got me curious and led me to gardening.

Life Coaching and Gardening

One day, while doing some gardening and pulling some weeds, my brain began making analogies between life coaching and gardening. I suddenly realized that gardening is exactly like our mindset! With mindset, you have to constantly watch for new weeds showing up and you have to pull them out, pull them up from the root, or else you’re gonna have to come back and pull them out again. Weeds pertaining to one’s self issues or problems. 

Sometimes when I’m working with clients, I notice that there is a certain level of frustration when the anxiety comes back. For example, a bad old habit shows up again. They would feel frustrated at experiencing it again, but I would tell them that we just didn’t get the entire root and we just needed to go deep enough. Just like gardening, we need to pull the weed from the root to remove it completely.

Feeling Overwhelmed

I had an overwhelming amount of deweeding to do a couple weeks ago. I didn’t know where to start. I felt like no matter how many weeds I was pulling out, nothing was really happening, my garden would still look like a lot of work. I felt overwhelmed and it didn’t feel rewarding. 

It would be the same with many of my clients. They would feel overwhelmed at the start of our life coaching. Sometimes we feel that the easiest way out is to not even start, because it’s overwhelming to look at the amount of work we have ahead of us. Clients see the big mountain of work ahead of them, and they oftentimes not see the gratifying results after. 

Nothing gets easier if you don’t start. In my situation, I decided to start and it made me feel better. There was still more to do, but at least I’m moving towards my goal and stopped procrastinating. 

Imagine your mind is our garden, it needs constant work. Taking care of another living thing takes time and effort and consistency. We just have to show up every so often. We have to do the hard work of pulling the weeds out, or else they’ll take over the garden and the beautiful flowers.The same is true for life coaching- If you do not get into the habit of constantly taking inventory of the weeds in your mind, you allow yourself to feel fear and be paralyzed in the present. Instead of being successful, the weeds in your mind hinder your potential. 

Why I’m a Big Fan of Being a Coach

I love having a coach that keeps me accountable to deweeding my mind, my garden, on a regular basis. I am now at a point where I no longer need a coach to check on my work. I do it, because I see the benefits. As a life coach, that is my goal. I work with my clients to get into the habit of strategizing and being their accountability partner, until eventually all their issues are resolved.

My Neighbor, Jackie

One weekend while I was weeding, my next door neighbor stopped by for a chat. We talked about how difficult it is to do yard work, when we suddenly looked across my house and noticed Jackie’s beautiful garden. My next door neighbor said I should be more like Jackie who’s always tending to her garden.  

Jackie lives across from our house. She is in her 80’s and has a beautiful big house, with a beautiful big yard. I remember being shocked that she is so mobile at her age. 

While weeding my garden, I kept thinking about how I wanted my garden to look greener and prettier. I was beginning to feel jealous of Jackie’s garden, which made me feel bad about myself. I started comparing and making excuses. Jackie is retired, thus she has more time to tend to her garden. I thought, if I were retired I’d have a great garden too.

In reality, Jackie is a committed woman. Her being retired and having more time does not have anything to do with how her garden looks. It’s simply because she works hard and has been doing it consistently, everyday.  

Final Thoughts

Having greener grass takes a lot of hard work and dedication. We need to consistently work on pulling out the weeds. In a similar way, we should work hard to sustain a healthy mindset, balance our emotional wellbeing, and prioritize all that matters in our lives. To do all this is no easy task. Everything we do requires commitment and hard work. It might be difficult to start, but once you see the outcome, there’s no stopping you.

Life is like gardening. The weeds are the problems and negativities in our lives. We have to constantly work on keeping these weeds from damaging our beautiful garden, which is our life and our minds.

I hope this was helpful! If you liked this episode, please leave a review, share it with others and come hang out with me on Instagram!

Learn more about my group program Becoming The CEO Of Your Life, and my Detox The Mind course.