Harvest, water, weed.

We have a bumper crop of apples on one of our trees this year so for the past week I have been going out each evening to harvest them. I remember once hearing Bob Flowerdew, the organic gardening pioneer, saying that when you go into your garden you should first harvest, then water and then weed. I tend to do the opposite. Start with the weeding, finish with some watering and if I still have time and energy harvest.

This week I have been following his advice and as a result, my experience of the garden has been totally different. Its pretty obvious really but I now go out looking for fruit to harvest rather than weeds to attack. Then I will look for plants that need water, so nurturing. I do still find time to remove weeds but I find I am looking for where weeds are limiting the growth of plants rather than just making the place look untidy. As a result the whole energy with which I engage with the garden has changed to appreciation and nurturing rather than combat!!

I have found myself wondering whether this might extend beyond the garden. Last week during a Matrix session someone told me they felt that if I could change my beliefs about money everything would change. Driving home I started turning all my beliefs about money on their head and laughed when I got to, "Money does grow on trees."

Ridiculous as this may seem I began to wonder if I was just failing to "harvest" in my business in the same way as my garden. It was a really interesting exercise. Try it yourself. Do you sow seed, water, fertilise, prune, weed and harvest?

More importantly, I realised that starting with the harvest meant I was looking for what was successful in the garden rather than focusing on what needed fixing. This does apply to everything. Where attention goes, energy flows. So focusing on the harvest will bring more to harvest whereas focusing on weeds brings....more weeds!