Bamboo Growth

Have you heard the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree? Fascinating!

As it goes, the seed is incredibly hard when planted, and takes a significant amount of care before anything exciting happens. If we didn’t know the process, nearly everyone would fail to grow this tree. It’s a miracle anyone had the patience to learn how to grow the Chinese bamboo tree.

Because, after planting the seeds, nothing happens for 5 years! Nothing pops out of the ground. Assuming you know this upfront, you’ll also know in less than 6 weeks of the 5th year, it can grow up to 90 feet!

Knowing this happens, the planter is willing to make the daily sacrifice for 5 years, for the success of those 6 weeks. Massive success, I’d say.

How can we apply this to life? Take exercise, for example. No one would disagree that exercise has significant life value. And no one ever exercises and regrets it. Yet how many of us are consistently exercising? Can we find a consistent rhythm to grow our minds, marriages, finances, relationships, careers? Of course, we can. Why don’t we? We don’t see the “tree” growing.

Thankfully it doesn’t take 5 years! 30 days of focusing consistently and systematically will show some improvement. 90 days create significant habit formation and obviously more improvement. Even knowing this, we struggle with consistency and often lose discipline in a few days - after the novelty fades. Logic says keep going but feeling eats logic for lunch.

Maybe we should put up a picture of the Chinese bamboo tree the next time we’re chasing a dream, a skill, fitness, health, career, relationships.

The keys are knowing what you want, why you want it, and having a simple, easy, automated process of execution and consistency. Tracking helps too. What gets measured, gets improved. And scheduling. What gets scheduled, gets done.

How does bamboo growth apply to your life, your career, health – or whatever is important to you? Are you watering and caring for your habits, goals, and dreams every day? One of the best quotes I’ve heard, mostly crediting John Maxwell, “The secret of our success is hidden in our daily routine.” You can substitute “success” with any word that represents something you value.

What is your next Chinese bamboo tree?