Hi Reader,
I love this time of year. My garden's in bloom, the veggies are starting to flourish, and I take regular trips to the yard to see the vibrant colors and (im)patiently wait for progress.
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There's a quote I like to come back to: "When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower." - Alexander Den Heijer
We give a plant that grace without thinking. We rarely give it to ourselves, especially when you think about all of your still open browser tabs.
๐ก The gift
Your browser tabs are the clearest example. You know exactly why each one of them is still open including the project tool you set up with real hope and never opened again. The workflow you documented once. The system you built at midnight that lasted about a week.
Your permission: that row of half-finished tools isn't evidence of anything about you. It isn't proof you lack follow-through or discipline or whatever quiet word you've been using on yourself. Everyone has been overusing "bottleneck" these days. Not that one either.
A flower that doesn't bloom isn't a problem. Something in the environment wasn't supporting it to thrive.
Most of the founders I talk to have the same abandoned tools and open browser tabs. Like you, every one of them assumed they were the only one.
โจ Something to sit with
How many project management tools have you set up and abandoned?
If the answer is more than one, notice what actually failed. Not the tool. A tool is the bed. The structure is knowing what to plant, when, and who tends it, and no app ever handed you that.
A system isn't what limits your creativity. It's what protects it. It's the trellis that lets the thing climb instead of sprawl.
๐๐พ Signing off...
The garden (and weeds) will bloom out there whether or not I go outside, because Mother Nature has a system quietly doing the work. Your business can too. Not when you finally find the right app, but when the conditions around you are finally built to allow you to climb instead of sprawl.
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If you're curious where a little more structure could support what you've already grown, I have a Business Alignment Check-In. It's free, takes about five minutes, and gives you an honest read on where better structure could make a difference.
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