The Bamboo Tree Short Story – Lessons on Patience and Success

Today, I would like to share a motivational story with you – the Chinese bamboo tree short story! It’s simple but full of important lessons for life. Lessons on patience, perseverance, and long-term success…

Take a moment to imagine this. You have just been gifted a Chinese Bamboo Tree seed. If you were a plant lover like me, chances are you would plant the seed. Now, the seed needs to be kept watered and at the perfect temperature for it to germinate.

Imagine that you spend the first year carefully watering that seed and monitoring the temperature. Nothing happens. All you see is a patch of soil. Now it’s the second year and you continue to water that patch of ground with even more care than before. Still nothing – just plain dirt. 

Being the optimist you are, it’s year three, and you continue to give the plant the same diligent care….and there is still NOTHING, just dirt.

Be honest, and ask yourself now, what would you do?? I would probably give up. And not only that but get extremely resentful of the time and effort that I have spent on the seed.

But let’s assume that I continue nurturing the seed… 

It’s now the fourth year and, finally, there’s a sprout! And not just any sprout – that bamboo tree does an amazing thing. The tree bursts with life and grows 80 feet tall in six weeks!! (This is true). You might ask, how is that possible? How could this tree grow 80 feet tall in 6 weeks?

Well, the reality is this, the bamboo tree grows 80 feet tall, in 4 years and 6 weeks! So, while one is tempted to believe there is nothing happening, there is a LOT happening beneath the surface. In my mind, it’s amazing how the bamboo tree short story is related to life, work, and the effort that one puts in to chase his/her dreams.

We plant the seed of a dream, get excited about it, put in the effort, and when the returns are not visible, we withdraw and then eventually give up. We slip back into a comfort zone, even if we are miserable in it. We stay in jobs we hate, tolerate relationships that don’t make us happy, exist in a body that is not healthy, or live in a culture that is toxic. 

What an incredible loss! Because sometimes we can all feel like we have been doing so much but nothing seems to be working.

BUT things are happening even if we can’t see it “on the surface”. 

In my experience of working with thousands of clients, working towards what matters to us, even a little bit every day will not show immediate results, but it will in the long term, only if we would just stay the course. Nothing is a waste of time, and we could just wake up one day and realize we are exactly where we need to be.

So keep watering your seeds. Your effort matters. Your intent matters. Your persistence matters. It will be all worth it in the long run. I promise. 🙂

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