4 Secrets Summer Taught Me About Successfully Reaching Big Goals (without burning out!)
/Everything useful I’ve learned about growth, I learned from Nature (especially Summer☀️)- NOT from mainstream society.
And in fact, I didn’t stop spiraling in anxiety and burn-out enough to making real, lasting progress towards my bigger dreams and goals until I began unlearning all the toxic lies about growth that our capitalistic hustle culture (which breaks every “natural law”) brainwashed me to believe!
Each Spring, I excitedly move my morning meditation and tea ritual outside into the back yard to mindfully observe the sounds, smells, and sights of nature as it awakens into a new annual growth cycle. I love to witness the moment the bare Winter trees sprout their very first buds, and then- as if by magic- grow big, bright green leaves making the sparse woods behind my house, feel like a dense, enchanted forest!
And then suddenly everything in the backyard feels busier! I especially notice all the birds chatting back and forth from the tree-tops and seeking mates as they prepare to grow offspring.
For the past few years, I’ve had the sacred honor of watching a mama robin build her nest and nurture her babies beneath the roof of an old well, just a few feet from where I sit for my morning ritual.
First, I watch her spend days diligently gathering twigs and a dry grass-like material to build her nest. When she stops to sit for longer periods in her nest, I know she’s laid her eggs and is working intently to keep them safe and warm for a couple weeks. After a couple weeks when she starts spending most of the day flying back and forth to the nest with worms and berries in her little beak, and I know her babies have been born and she’s devotedly gathering food for her them!
And finally after weeks of feeding her hungry little hatchlings in the nest, they’ve grown enough to leave the nest. A couple times over the past few years, I was lucky enough to witness the precise moment a fledgling left the nest (adorably bopping around the grass unable to fly just yet), and I watched mama and papa robin on protection duty, day and night, until their little fledgling was grown enough to fly and fend for itself.
And then mama and papa robin repeated this process 2-3 times for months, through the end of Summer!
By observing Nature, I learned my first growth secret! / 4 Truths about sustainable growth that finally allowed me to get out of my own way and become the powerful manifestor that we humans naturally are!
Secret #1: PERSISTENT action-taking is the key ingredient for sustainable, lasting growth.
During times of great growth Nature is engaged in PERSISTENT action-taking that’s sustained over weeks and months (whether it’s leaves spending long hours each day photosynthesizing sunlight into energy for growth, or robins diligently working to build their nest and tend to their young).
🤯 And then it hit me- a huge reason I had been struggling to reach my bigger goals and dreams was simply because I hadn’t yet figured out how to stay in persistent action long enough to reach my goals! And instead I would start taking action but then constantly get derailed for weeks or months by massive anxiety, overwhelm, “self-sabotage”, and burn-out (and then feel like I was constantly starting over from scratch)!
And I reflect:
How can I stay in persistent action, like that mama bird, without constantly burning-out or breaking down to the point where I stop nurturing my baby goals- and let them die?
Secret #2: Not all actions are aligned and lead to growth! (And we must learn to discern aligned actions from unaligned ones.)
After recognizing how much I struggled to sustain persistent action towards goals, I started reflecting on how mama robin sustained persistent action for months to successfully create 2-3 nests of offspring each Spring and Summer- while I floundered all year long trying to make any sort of lasting progress towards my own dreams.
One thing that struck me was that mama Robin worked with such grace and flow. She made it all look so effortless, despite the constant threat of predators (like the blue jay that sat on the fence looking for it’s next meal), and unexpected tragedies (like the dead fledgling I discovered in the grass the morning after excitedly witnessing it’s departure from the nest). She seemed to know the exact right actions to take, at the exact right pace in order to sustain her efforts long-term without burning-out.
And suddenly I was reminded of the Buddhist teachings of “right action” and “right effort”.
My interpretation of these teachings is that If you’re struggling to create the growth you want- then something is out of alignedment when we take actions that are aligned with what we want to create, then we inevitably create the results we want. But if we’re struggling to create what we want, then we aren’t taking aligned actions. evenbtually will follow. “right action” (aka. actions that are Right Action tells us that
(Spoiler: chronic anxiety and burn-out is a 🚩 you’re sabotaging your growth with unaligned, unsustainable actions)
****make this step about LISTENING to the wisdom of your body and soul, and refining your actions and efforts in response to that “negative” feedback. (+ talk abt needing a process to do that… and what blocks us from doing this> eg. we ignore signs of disharmony and keep pushing harder until we break down or burn-out; eg. we don’t make the space to reflect on the discomfort/syuckness/resistance and extract the wisdom, and change course accordingly.
I sit and reflect on the difference between the type of persistent, enduring action-taking that leads mama Robin to successfully birth and nurture 3 broods of babies, making it it look easy/natural despite the constant threat of natural predators (like the circling hawks my dog barks at most mornings) and accidents (like the dead fledgling I discovered in the grass the morning after celebrating it’s departure from the nest)…
vs. the type of all-or-nothing action-taking I’m stuck in, that persistently leads to intense anxiety and burn-out that blocks me from staying in action long enough to grow my bigger goals.
And suddenly I’m reminded of the buddhist teachings of “right action” and “right effort”.
Define right action + right effort >>>>>
Mama robin seems to know exactly how to maintain right effort and right action.
And I realize that I have the innate power to discern right effort and right action too through a mix of through a mix of deep intuitive knowing/sense of purpose guiding me, AND refinement through the powerful negative feedback from wrong action + wrong effort
🤖 the machine of capitalistic, hustle culture teaches us to grow as if disposable, replaceable parts to simply further the goals of capitalism (and the profit of those on top)- if we break down or burn-out we will just be replaced. But when we’re pursuing our own dreams and goals if we break-down or burn out then our goals die from our inability to nurture them. [ because I’ve been so stuck in the toxic, unnatural growth ways of hustle culture, I haven’t been using that smae power mama robin is uses to discern right action + right effort- through a mix of deep intuitive knowing/sense of purpose, AND refinement through the powerful negative feedback from wrong action + wrong effort]
When we persist in “wrong” unaligned action, our actions don’t produce the outcomes or progress we want. (eg. we don’t see growth OR we grow things that don’t actually bring us the happiness and fulfillment we hoped they would).
When we persist in “wrong” unsustainable effort, and forcing ourselves to grow faster or bigger that we have the resources for- we experience symptoms of disharmony- like massive anxiety, overwhelm, procrastination, “self-sabotage”, and burnout- that blocks our growth.
Like swimming with the current to reach your goal- growth feel inevitable
Vs linear (never-ending), extractive growth that feels painfully unsustainable and forced (like swimming against the current to reach a goals) >>> think Empires growing and falling
Terms I learned from Buddhism (although I prefer aligned effort + aligned action)
“Wrong”, unaligned effort feels massively unsustainable and won’t lead to persistent action-taking- the #1 ingredient for growth (and instead keeps you stuck spiraling in cycles of debilitating anxiety, overwhelm, procrastination, “self-sabotage”, and burnout.
And “wrong”, unaligned action will lead to growing “wrong” goals and dreams that aren’t what’s truly important to you (aka that don’t bring you the fulfillment or happiness you thought they would).
And wrong effort + wrong action together will create all sorts of fuckery 😵
And I reflect:
How can I better LISTEN to my own inner wisdom guiding me to the most aligned actions, efforts, and pace for me? And how can I consistently recognize when I’m in unaligned action, efforts, pace and ADAPT my growth plan to feel sustainable so I don’t burn-out before I reach each goal and fully grow my bigger dream?
Secret #3: Sustainable growth is CYCLICAL and requires non-growth periods for regeneration (it’s NOT Linear, constant, or limitless).
A few weeks after all the baby robins left the nest and I noticed mama robin return home to start the process all over again. Through gogle I learned that a robin has 2-3 broods between per year before starting to prepare for wintering/ migration by the end of Summer. Seasons of Play/Desire/Inspo as Prep for growth, Outer Growth (persistent action), Inner Growth (listening for disharmony-pause and reflection for wisdom/insight- re-alignment with wisdom, right action, right effort), Rest (space to receive regeneration).
She grows during the seasons where the resources she needs for growth are abundant (food), and doesn’t force her growth goals when resoutces aren’t available and conditions aren’t right for it. She awaits better growth conditions/season to return in the Spring.
And I reflect:
????
Secret #4: Growth happens in its own DIVINE TIMING that can’t be rushed (but there is a sustainable way to speed it up 😉!)
Because often we are blocking our full growth potential and pace without realizing it
Ethically Cultivate your GROWTH OUTER RESOURCES of Time, Money, & Opportunity + your INNER GROWTH RESOURCES of ✔️Clarity, ✔️Confidence (courage), ✔️Competence (knowledge & skill), and ✔️Capacity (mental, emotional, & physical).
Maybe go deeper into the 4 growth resources in a Part 2? And just say the only way to “speed up” growth is to cultivate the Resources needed to grow that goal.
“You are always doing the best you can with the level of inner & outer resources that you have available to you. If you want more growth- cultivate your resources”!
CTA: to 3-part Summer blog series; or to the Summer Alignment workshop (The art of persistent, aligned action)
