I set myself a challenge. To prune the overgrown shrubs on my small property. They all needed to come down 2 feet in height, and be trimmed back.
When I began on the Camellia I got five minutes into the job and realised what a difficult job it was. The loppers had good length arms but the sheer arm muscles required to hold them out and cut cut cut was exhausting. I wanted to quit. But I told myself if I could just get this one overgrown shrub done, then that would be enough. 
Then when I had another day off I just got out there and did all the rest. I knew, from that first shrub, that I could do it, it would just require all my arm strength and a ‘don’t stop till the job is done’ attitude.
The clear up, moving all the branches to the driveway so that I could then organise someone to come take it all away (It is quite the stack!!) was also tiring but there is a sense of ‘I am almost done’ that gives one the push to keep going.
After that was all done, I sat down on the patio with a cold soda and observed my efforts with a great deal of satisfaction, and pride. “I did it. I completed the entire job”. Oh yes there was one shrub that needed four feet off the top and the top branches were too thick for the loppers and it looks like a dogs breakfast but … the rest of the shrubs look perfectly pruned. I will wait for the ‘dogs breakfast’ to grow new leaves and cover the evenness.
The major thing was to get it all tidied and get it to a height where I can maintain it in the future. I promised myself I won’t let it get overgrown again!
My point here is: we are often more capable than we think. But we often let fear get in the way. We think ‘what if I can’t do it?’, ‘what if it is too hard for me?’, ‘what if I make a mess of it?’
So, do the research. Research how to do the job. And then just start. If you start and discover it is truly beyond you, then hire someone to do the job, but don’t quit because you are scared. Don’t quit because it’s hard. Don’t quit until you have no other option.
When I go out on a Sunday and bike 100 kilometres, I am there to bike 100 kilometres and nothing less will do. By the time I get home it is generally 102 or 103 kilometres, but the goal is always 100. Why? Personal challenge to myself. I don’t ride in the middle of the coldest part of winter as my hands get so cold (even with gloves) that I cannot rip open the gel sachet at the far part of my ride to fuel me for the ride back home. So I decided that if it is under 8 degrees I do not ride. If it is over? Oh, hell yes. 100 kilometres. (If it rains … I admit that I sometimes reduce the distance so that I can still get back home by 9.30 a.m. to let the cats and the dog out to go to the toilet! 9.30 a.m is my goal, having left at 5 a.m. — hey I never said I was fast — and riding in the wet is slower because you have to ride to the conditions.)
Setting goals is forward motion. It may only be ‘get the washing done today’, or ‘vacuum the house’, but each goal, no matter how small is moving us forwards. The more small goals we achieve, the more inclined we are to begin to set larger goals. The trick is to know what level to set the goals at and not set something so large you already know you cannot achieve it, and thus undo the progress you have already made. I might set the goal of ‘I am going to learn how to make dog treats’ and so I begin the research and I find a recipe. (I did) And then I make them every two weeks (I do). This is not only me putting my love into what I am doing, it is me making something for my dog that I know, not a bunch of ingredients I do not recognised, but ingredients I selected and combined. And my dog loves them. It was an achievable goal. Having mastered it I then ventured into finding recipes for humans! Something simple and time honoured, traditional. I found Irish Flapjacks (in honour of part of my ancestry!) and worked out that I can vary it a wee bit and add different things (chocolate, dried berries, nuts). I found it on a website for old Irish recipes.
Part of my goals moving forward this year has been to get back to the simplicity and basics of life. Simple living, basic work. Growing food, exercising, taking care of house and property, working, writing, reading, meditating. Simplicity to let the dross fall away … to find clarification in life.
The more simplistic I make things the easier it is for truth and realisation to be revealed. I have realised the greatest work that I do here on this earth is to be the very best version of the being that I am, the wholeness of me. The wholeness of me living a human lifetime. All else … well … it is the icing on the cake … but the real work is discovering without fear or hesitation, the wholeness of me.
Part of that journey is stepping through what I think I am capable of and then through what I thought I was not capable of. Discovering my limitlessness. Pushing the boundaries. … People think I am bonkers to want to go out every Sunday and bike 100 kilometres, but for me … that 100 kilometre ride has become my normal thing to do. The first time I did it I just wanted to know if I could, but then the next ride had to be a bit further, and the next a bit further. One day I rode 112 kilometres to put a limit on it. “Right, I have done 112 and now I know I won’t try to beat that so let’s settle back into a routine 100”.
What is normal for me today is not what was normal for me a year ago, or even a month ago.
Don’t replicate the same day over and over and over. Learn, read, exercise, grow, evolve, challenge yourself to be the very best you.
The work I did on the pruning … that removal of overgrowth and the redefining of the garden … is the redefining of my life. Clarification. Now the light can shine into the house without obstruction, the trees have room, and I know that come spring the new growth will be joyous! My gardens are an expression of me and I am an expression of them. Sometimes I am overgrown (I too got a prune last week from my hairdresser!) and sometimes I need water and food.
I always tell my children, my dog, cats, plants, gardens how much I love and appreciate them. It is all consciousness. We are all one consciousness, so all that I do on my own journey, to which I am dedicated, also affects you. What I do affects you. Think about that … Because what you do affects those around you, and the world around you.
Here is a wee challenge to accept .. a week of gratitude for the people, animals, plants, and objects in your life. A week of daily gratitude to be expressed daily. When you have conquered that challenge … take some time to reflect on the week. How did it compare to every other week. Different? Better? Now … do it again for another week. Then reflect again, then do it again for another week, then reflect again, then do it again for another week. If you forget, or slip up, don’t worry, just let that go and try again, and keep trying again over and over.
Small challenges … one small one at a time … and feel the forward motion.
I will leave you with those thoughts and that challenge.