The Path To Your Goal

Since we didn’t do our garden this year you get thoughts from mowing instead :) 

The house we’re bundling is on 10 acres. I’d say we probably mow 3 to 4 of the 10 acres and this takes about 4 hours. As you can imagine it’s a good amount of time to listen to something…podcasts, books, or just my own thoughts….which can be a wild conversation!

Okay, before I continue I have to preface to say I grew up in the country and we had a couple of acres that we had to mow. Typically my dad mowed, but one day he trusted me enough to take over the role. I legit remember riding on the back of the mower listening to him explain the how-tos!

I mean, we all know that men and their yards are a very special relationship! Keep the lines straight and be sure to mow in the opposite direction as you did last time so the grass grows evenly. 

Yes sir. Got it. 

So, here I am 20 20-something years later mowing and keeping these two things in the back of my mind, always.
But, there’s one big difference between my yard as a kid and our current yard. The old yard was basically a rectangle, so it was pretty easy to mow in a straight line from front to back.

Our current yard is not. Add in a shop, some electrical lines, our garden beds, trees, and whew. There’s no cruise control to set and go.

I typically start with the front and that one is pretty easy. No matter where I start it’ll look straight because of it’s shape.

But, I then get to the back. When mowing one way there’s the property line and then two rows of trees to follow. 

The first pass that’s along the property line is perfect - straight as an arrow. 

The second pass gets a little wonky because I have to start mowing around the trees (bless a zero-turn mower). It takes about 4-5 passes to get past the trees and then it opens back up until you come to some massive dirt piles due to construction. Back to zigging and zagging. 

In my mind, I should finish in a certain spot that creates straight lines. 

Sure enough…that’s not the case. 

Once again, I’ve ended up in a different spot than I had in my head. The lines are technically straight but not the “straight” path I thought it would have taken. From one angle it looks completely in line with the treess, but from another angle, it is definitely not. 

It used to drive me a little nutty because it just didn’t make sense. Then I decided to not really care (I know, what a wild thing to do)! It’s all getting mowed, the lines are straight, and all the grass is cut. 

**Stops and admires a dang good job**

When we look at business, sometimes we feel confident that the path to our goal is going to be a straight line.

 I will do A, B, C and will get directly to Z. No twists, turns, or hiccups.

But, from working with a good number of clients (and also within my own business) that path drifts. We may get to  A, B, and C, but then J comes in, and then a random 7 comes in…and how TF because it’s obviously not even a letter! 

Is this a bad thing? 

Not necessarily, but like most situations…it depends.

Did that 7 come in because you stopped paying attention to the consistent activities that would get you there or maybe you stopped growing the business that’s true to you, so it became something way different?

Or did that 7 come in because it actually made sense - it just wasn’t something you could have imagined. 

At the end of the day, we need to keep an eye on what the goal is, but be open to how we get there!