Help your garden grow and achieve your goals this spring

I ALWAYS believe that this is the year that my garden will transform into something that the Chelsea Flower Show would be proud of and that I will spend many a summer’s night enjoying my new glorious surroundings whilst sipping a cool glass of something sparkly.

The reality is usually something far different. I should point out that neither me nor hubby are particularly green fingered nor do we have that tenacity that is required to fight overgrown brambles, couch grass, animals or play equipment. But a girl can dream, right? So on Sunday as I awoke to the wonderful birdsong that filled my bedroom, realising what a glorious day it was, I thought, yes, today is the day to sort the garden.

Now you may be wondering where this is going, but sometimes insights happen when you least expect them.

You see I found that my gardening experience was no different to any other largescale project that I encounter. Initially, there is the excitement of starting, that push of momentum, everything seems achievable in a super efficient amount of time and you are astounded at how much you can achieve. Then comes the setback, all of a sudden everything seems to slow down, you think you are going at the same pace but you don’t seem to make progress. It is at this time the setback becomes a ‘sit back’, and here is the danger, you sit back and focus on what is yet to be achieved. It seems overwhelming. You may even give up. This is what usually happens in our garden.

However, it struck me that while this happened in my garden almost year on year, it rarely happened in my business, and that made me wonder why. I wondered how I kept motivated during tough times.

It dawned on me, while kneedeep in mud, that there are three essential ingredients to achieving your goal.

The first is that while you clearly need an idea of direction, at the point of setback it is always important to focus clearly on all that you have achieved rather that what you need to achieve, one pats you on the back, the other scares the pants off you. Which leads me to the next essential ingredient.

Whatever your goal is, break it down into manageable do-able bits – smaller goals that you can achieve.

Finally, the ingredient that makes the difference, a bit like saffron in a paella, is that whenever your thoughts direct themselves to how unachievable your goal is, remember your thoughts know nothing about what you can achieve in the future, because it hasn’t happened yet, it’s merely scary thinking to keep you stuck knee deep in mud – and if Thomas Edison had believed those types of thoughts, we’d all be in the dark too. All we can do is keep moving, and when we do, little, by little we make the impact that we want to make.

So while my garden will undoubtedly not win any awards this year, we will make some very happy memories in it and, little by little, we will work to reclaim it from nature and the children to a place that we can enjoy.