Learning from Plants

Weekly Report CW39

Plants are constantly growing. If you cut them back, they don’t stop from growing. They care but get more robust. Of course, you can cut a plant to death, but it’s hard to do when they stay in an environment that works best for them. Alessia Wiss showed me a plant that she accidentally topped. There was only a stem left. I thought it wouldn't recover. But only two weeks later, many new leaves came out of the branch, growing to a new tree.

It has similarities to life. When we have setbacks, like living through a loss, we can always learn from plants. As long we keep going, we are going to grow out of it. We get stronger. But it takes time. Sometimes years.

As human beings, we have an advantage in comparison to plants.

We don’t have roots, at least not physically. We can move if an environment doesn’t let us flourish. It’s easier said than done, but it’s possible. Changing the environment can drastically improve our life quality. It can also make life worse. We have to fit into an environment where we can grow. But what about mental roots? This is harder to change because we take them with us. When we go to another place that makes us flourish, it's possible that we only see the negatives through root rot in our heads. Awareness is critical to see if our head is full of root rot. And therapy probably to get rid of it. In the end, we can grow, like plants do: Every single day. That’s a beauty about nature.

My brother broke his foot three times.

Eight weeks ago, my brother broke his foot during an accident on skydiving. We drive together tonight to his event in Spain. He recovered quickly, had yesterday his last surgery to get rid of the screw in his bone. When I met him at the hospital, I gave him a tiny plant. I broke in front of him the main branch and mentioned, “Now you have a friend to recover together”. I received today this picture, and look at this: It recovered and grew stronger. It even makes more branches and leaves:

I have to go now—14 hours of driving in front of us. I can’t wait to meet all these fantastic people at muchofunboogie.com :) so this it’s why this medium post is a quick one, but I hope the plant story inspires you to keep growing.

The Five Friday Questions (CW39)

I end every week with a Friday Report and five questions, as we implemented it at OnSaPa GmbH to keep a consistent feedback relation.

What was good?

• I’m finally contracted 40–60% to a big corporation
• I had a great freelance job during the week
• Made significant progress with two OnSaPa partner
• Had the best revenue month on an OnSaPa partner
• I have my business cards ready
• Prepared the muchofunboogie
• Helped my brother to get him to the surgery

What to look at in the future?

• Finalize new OKRs for Q4
• Put less on your plate

What was shitty?

• Mind is scattered too many projects.

What should stay as it is?

• My motivation to help people achieve more

What was neglected?

• My work on the business (OKRs)
• I couldn’t learn more about psychology

I will be back in two weeks!

Enjoy a wonderful holiday!
Otto