Time to Prune Your Life

Pruning is the process of removing certain above-ground elements from a plant; in landscaping this process usually involves removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant. Wikipedia

We should prune our lives for the same reasons we prune plants; we all have “diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions” of our personal and professional lives.

An arborist carefully considers the long-term effects before deciding what to remove from the tree, and we need to carefully consider the effects of our decisions before we start chopping off major pieces of our lives. First, we need to understand what it is that we are growing. I repeatedly ask these questions of myself and those that I mentor:

• What are the most important things to you?
• What activities do you spend most of your time on?

I’m sure most of you won’t find it surprising that the answers to these two questions rarely line up, but the answers tell us what we can consider for pruning. Remember, we can’t simply remove everything that does not line up with our goals; the long-term consequences may be too expensive. What we’ve done is to identify what it is we are growing and what is eligible for pruning. At this point, you need to carefully consider what to prune.

I hope I’ve convinced you to take the time to identify what you’re growing and what is holding you back. I believe the effort is worth it. Life is too short and precious to waste it in a job, a relationship, or on choices that are slowly killing us.

Your challenge for this week is to take the time to answer these two questions for your life and for your work.

Enjoy the process, and please share any ideas you have that might help someone else.