Jeff Corrigan: Welcome back to Habit Masters. I'm Jeff.
Sheldon Mills: I'm Sheldon.
Jeff Corrigan: And this is the best podcast to help you bridge the gap between where you've been and where you want to be. And today we have an awesome idea to share with you. Sheldon, what's going on?
Sheldon Mills: Yes. The idea is this, in the garden of your life, planting is greater than weeding.
I'm just going to read you what I wrote about this because I think I can read it better than I can sum it up. The point of a garden isn't to get rid of weeds, it's to grow things. In particular, the good fruits that we want in our life. Weeding will always be a necessary part of life, but if you really want to enjoy good fruits, spend more time building the new instead of tearing down the old.
Spend more time and attention to growing the things you want in your garden and don't over fixate on just trying to remove the weeds you want to get rid of. Having a thriving, healthy garden is the best way to choke out the weeds. There's simply less space, sunshine, and energy left over. Of course, we want to remove the thorns and the thistles that hurt us, but please don't stop living and growing the things you do want in your life.
Your garden doesn't have to be completely barren of any weeds before you can be happy and enjoy the flowers, vegetables, fruit, and shade trees. Again, the point of a garden isn't to get rid of weeds, it's to grow things.
Jeff Corrigan: Well said. I love it.
Sheldon Mills: Thank you.
Jeff Corrigan: Excellent. So let's bring this to a practical sense too, where it's like, okay, because I love the whole philosophy is true to me.
And obviously we've been talking about this for the last hour and I, I feel like it's something we've been talking about for really years, but it's summed up right today. The principle here is. Filling your time and your life with good actions, being intentional about what it is you want and working towards those things.
It comes back to goals and good habits and nourishing the fruits and, The things that you were hoping to build into your life because your garden really the garden is just a representation of your life. Like what's in your garden and so many of us are fighting against negative habits and things we don't want and those aren't bad things.
You do have to weed like Sheldon said in there, right? It's like you do have to weed. But in the end, if all you're doing is weeding, all you're doing is avoiding things and trying to avoid them. Like you fight this battle so hard that it inevitably. You get tired and things don't go like you want them to do.
Like to use an example, there's actually a big giant field right behind my house. Half of it is planted. Half of it is always empty, right? For the last nine years that I've lived in this house, this is how it's been. One half of the field is always planted. The other half of the field is always empty. Come springtime, they plant the one field and the other field.
They till up as if they're going to plant it. But then they don't because there's nothing, they're not going to find anything. So they leave this spot empty every year and inevitably three, four weeks later, after they tell it what comes.
Sheldon Mills: The
Jeff Corrigan: weeds, whatever
Sheldon Mills: gets blown in, whatever the wind blows in.
Jeff Corrigan: Yes.
It's so, so true. So just a great example of what it's like in our lives. If all we're doing is, is weeding or trying to like avoid things or not make big mistakes or If all we're ever doing is weeding, the weeds just keep coming back. But the moment we plant the field, the moment we plant something we want in our garden, or in our life, right, the moment we set a goal for something good that we're looking towards and working towards, is the moment those weeds have less space, right?
They don't come back as easily, as quickly, or as, And we're not having to till and fight that battle every single day.
Sheldon Mills: There's purpose. Well, you think about it. Okay. The one that gets planted with corn. So the reality is there's the same amount of weeds and things get blown into the same field. I mean, they're literally next to each other, right?
Right. The only difference is the energy and the sunshine and the rain. There there's a purpose. There's, there's a purpose. You know, the, the farmers particularly planted the corn. So that will grow, they still have to weed there. Actually. It's just that you can keep it at bay because you're growing the things you want to grow.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. And this, this kind of goes back to just one of the things that we were talking about a few minutes ago is. It becomes easier, first of all, because there's less room for the weeds and the negative habits in your life. But, one good habit will inevitably lead to another good habit, and another good habit.
And your lifestyle begins to change simply by changing one small thing. It's like, we were listening to a story the other day, and this guy who was living a very unhealthy life went to the doctor and was like, Hey, I got a kid. I gotta like get my weight in order. I got all these things, right? It's like, I need some change.
And the doctor, he felt like he was going to have some great advice for him. The doctor just told him, what you're going to do is just go outside in the sunshine every morning for 30 minutes. It's like, start with that. And the guy's like, this is the advice you're giving me? Like, come on. It's ridiculous.
But he ended, he's like, all right, fine. Like, I'm, I'm willing to do anything. I really want to get healthy. So he starts going out 30 minutes a day in the mornings. And just so happens that after being in sunshine and kind of doing a little bit of exercise, he started to make better choices with his breakfast, started to make better choices with his health.
And suddenly all those things started to domino into more positive habits. Once you set goals in your life and you start working towards those around that becomes more positive habits. Like recently I started running again, like a couple of months ago, and I've already noticed, I don't want to like waste that the growth and success I'm having there.
And so I make better food choices. I go to sleep earlier because I know I'm going to have to wake up in the morning, go running. And suddenly you see the impact, the ripple effect of one positive habit in life. Is more positive habits and they start taking up more and more space and you're no longer having to fight against like, Oh, should I stay up late or shouldn't I?
It's like, no, the decision's already made because you know, you have to wake up to go run or to do whatever it is. You get out in the sunshine for a few minutes. So it's, it's the same idea is as you fill your life with more positive goals and habits. There's less room for the negative habits or the
Sheldon Mills: crowds out the weeds.
Yeah.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. Yeah. I think, how do I say this? I think God expects us to get stronger at pulling out the weeds because we practice at it to find better tools to perhaps literally get specialists who specialize in getting rid of these noxious weeds, right. That we hate that hurt. Right. But at the end of the day.
If the decisions is between planting and nourishing the good fruits versus weeding, I firmly believe that you'll make more progress and find more happiness and get where you want to go faster. If you spend that energy planting and growing the things you want, we'll never, we'll never not have to weed, right?
Of course you don't want the thorns and the thistles, right? That will just happen. But if you really want to enjoy the fruits of your garden, spend energy and time focusing your attention on that.
Jeff Corrigan: Absolutely. And we used to use the phrase a lot, like watering with no seeds only grows weeds, right?
Your garden will get filled with something. It's a fertile soil, right? Your mind, your body, all those things are fertile soil. What you feed it. What you give it is what's going to grow and if you don't choose what grows, like we said earlier, other stuff blows in, you know, all the negative habits, you know, friends that aren't really good friends, like all the things that are a negative impact in your life are going to just kind of fill that void because as humans, that's our nature where we are social beings.
We're essentially fertile soil for the universe. And we can either be intentional about what we're growing or be unintentional. And then our life is going to be filled with whatever blows in.
Sheldon Mills: So if the one takeaway I hope people, I hope you get from this is this we get stressed, we get overwhelmed.
We wonder why we aren't making the progress we want. I hope this simplifies it to the point that if you have one decision today, Decide what it is you want more of in your life. Decide we all know it. Okay. Whatever it is, just make this decision of what it is you want to focus on today. The, the good fruit that you want, and then perhaps instead of, you know, worrying and fixating on the problem on the issues where we feel that we're broken, spend, spend that time growing what it is you want in your life.
That time and attention in that focus, that energy on the thing you want, the thing you're approaching rather than the thing you're trying to avoid.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. And Sheldon brought this up earlier. I feel like for the majority of us, including ourselves, our tendency and our natural inclination is to focus on the negative, is to focus what's wrong to focus on the problem to focus on falling short where we're falling short the gap as it were, as we talked about last week, right?
The gap in our lives, like, oh, I'm just not here. I'm just not doing good at this. And that is not a good starting point. Right? No one wins a race starting out thinking they're going to lose you. . , you've got to change that mindset and the way you do that is by taking small steps in a positive direction saying, okay, I'm going to set a goal.
So I would suggest you for the next seven to 10 days, just pick one thing that you wanted to plant and grow in your life and find five to 10 to 15 minutes a day to focus on that thing. And email me if you don't find this to be true, but I think you will find, and I, I, I'm willing to bet, and put a guarantee on this, that Jeff guarantee that you will have more positive energy to do the other things in your life, if you just spend a little bit of time each day focused on growing something you really want.
Yeah. So give it a try, call it a seven or 10 day challenge, whatever you want, however many days you want to put in there. But. I feel like doing that will give you this momentum and you'll start to see the impact of one positive change in your life, how that impacts other areas. And even just in a small timeframe, nourish that seed for the next 10 days and obviously do it longer if you're, if you're liking it, but 10 days is a great time period to say, Okay, I know I can do it because it's not a long time and it's also a long enough to say you can see a positive impact, at least a positive momentum change in your life.
Sheldon Mills: Long enough to plant the seed and start to see where it will lead. Yes. To enjoy the fruits or see, or at least be able to tangibly see what will come, what will grow.
Jeff Corrigan: Absolutely. What else you want to say today?
Sheldon Mills: Ah, I just, this, this feels true and old yet new at the same time. And that I hope you have a little more hope from hearing today's thought idea.
And we love you and we want you to enjoy the fruit of your life. You don't have to wait to get rid of all the things that we feel we're lacking where we're falling short to get rid of the weeds, to start enjoying the fruit and the vegetables and the shade trees and enjoying life. So focus, planting is greater than weeding.
weed, we must, but focus your time and attention on planting and growing the things you want in your life.
Jeff Corrigan: Absolutely. And sometimes that's the best way to get rid of the weeds is trade up for something better.
Sheldon Mills: I was just going to say, we, we, we focus too much on elimination and it should be more replacement.
In our lives.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. We've talked about this, but approach and avoid, right? What are you going towards? What are you aiming for? What are you working towards? What are you building in your life? What are you growing in your garden? Because those are the things that are going to give you the momentum, energy, and focus to make positive change.
So
with that, thank you very much for listening. We really appreciate it when you share our podcast with others, because that's the only way we grow and get the word out to more people. Again, you're awesome. It's time to start living your best life.