Digging your hands into the soil

I have been at this for 12 years. Twelve. Years. In various fashions, with breaks, and many permutations. The bug of independent life; the bug of freedom to have the time to help the world, and do what was meaningful, and create beautiful things with my own hands.

Again, with the next permutation. Again, with the next level of focus. Still no big “success”. Again, we go. Again… The next… bit… forward. Never. Stop.

What they don’t tell you is:

• What the “how to” books tell you about business and entreprenuership covers roughly… 20% of what you need to know.
• The rest is learning any number or hard-won skills (if you don’t have them).

For me, the visionary who saw the branches of possiblity soaring up to the clouds, what I have had to learn was to bring it down back to Earth.

Maybe I saw things, out there, that some folks would never even imagine—possibilities that were too far out for them to even envision.

Other visionaries would find allies to collaborate with, who could not, themselves, see the high branches, but were good at seeing the trunk of the tree; good at grasping down into the roots.

But I think my job is to understand the whole process: From seeing the high branches, down to the trunk, and waaay down into the roots:

• Digging my hands deep into the soil.

The soil of concrete, day to day functions, details, and daily manifestation. With rocks, and worms, and hard dirt sometimes, and the loamy smell.

Smaller and smaller bites. This time: Take even smaller bites than before; but chew them more thoroughly. Extend your efforts carefully, out from the core of what you know is good, and unique, and beautiful. See how you can create something more solid and stable based on the good stuff you are doing now.

And extend out this beautiful, growing more solid core, asking “how can I help them more, and how can I make it easier and more fun for me as well?” Gradually gradually.

 

Patience. Hands dug deep into soil.