Finding Time to Bloom

The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The way you use your time is the way you live your life.

Finding Time to Bloom

Posted on April 15, 2009, under Time After Time.

Finding time to bloom is a process that nature treats us to every spring. I’ve been thinking about what’s involved in blossoming, as I watch the green shoots of daffodils push through the earth and unfold brightly under the warming sun. It’s a nice metaphor for the process of moving toward a long term goal.

With daffodils, the process starts in the fall, when their bulbs are put in the ground. Then comes the long winter … which is like the planning phase of a project, when you take time to figure out how you will move forward and what you’ll need to bring your plan to fruition. It’s a time that can look like dormancy from the outside – but actually, many necessary and helpful tasks are being accomplished.

Here in NH, things begin to change some time in March, as the snows melt and the iron-hard ground warms and softens. Still, nothing is visibly happening … but the planning is done, the last of the necessary materials have been gathered, and the preliminary groundwork is all but complete.

Next, the tips of shoots begin to poke through the ground. This is what people often view (and experience) as the beginning point of their project. In reality, the project started months ago, and lots and lots of work preceded this moment. This is a very exciting time, as your work begins to come together.

It’s important to guard against losing steam during this period, however. It can take weeks for those shoots to rise up greenly, and there can be many days when it feels like nothing is changing very much. The steps in this phase usually build slowly. That is part of the process.

Then there is always a day when, suddenly, all the daffodils are bursting into bloom. How did it happen? If you trace it back, it isn’t a sudden change. But the transformation from slender green shoot to bright yellow flower can seem to come overnight. That’s because the growth is exponential, not linear.

And that is how it can be with our projects. The early work goes slowly, but you are building momentum with each day.

If your investments of time and energy at the front end seem to not be yielding results, remember the daffodils in New Hampshire! Think about how long it can take for them to work their way up through the frosty ground – and what a profusion of color they produce once they bloom!

Have you found time to bloom? Please send us a comment here at The Time Finder. We’d love to hear about your experiences with blossoming!

What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!

Let’s explore time together …

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There are 4 Responses to “Finding Time to Bloom”

#1 Alison - 15 April, 8:32 AM

Great analogy! I find that the more I focus inwardly on the process of a project, rather than the visible manifestations, the easier I find it to pace myself steadily.

And to paraphrase a bonsai master, “Patience is not necessary for that which we love.” That’s the kind of attention I’d like to give to my life!

#2 Paula - 15 April, 8:59 PM

Hi Alison – What a wonderful quote! Thank you for sharing that, and for your insights about pace and process. Taking joy in the process certainly will increase satisfaction – in each moment of the journey.

#3 Find Time to Cook Rice | The Time Finder with Paula Eder - 18 April, 7:19 AM

[...] managing transitions. Find Time for Moving Through Change looked at the stages of change, while Finding Time to Bloom took nature as a metaphor to illustrate and enlarge on these [...]

#4 Find Time for Moving Through Change - 04 September, 1:29 PM

[...] time for blossoming (building on yesterday’s post) means finding time for moving through change. It’s helpful to see change, not as a [...]

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