Hidden potential
I’ve grown zinnias in my garden every summer for years.
They’re SO easy to grow and so beautiful, coming in all sort of colors and variations.
My house doesn’t feel like home without a bouquet of zinnias on my dining room table.
But, like all cut flowers, they have an expiration date.
After a while, they are past their prime.
I used to toss them in the compost bin straightaway.
Until I learned a magic trick:
Hang the zinnias up to dry and harvest the seeds
By gently pulling out the petals.
Remove the petal from the seed and voila!
No need to buy zinnia seeds ever again.
(Except, of course, when you go to the seed store
And see zinnia varieties you haven’t grown!)
It’s so easy to overlook the value in zinnias when they’re no longer fresh and beautiful.
It’s so easy to disregard the potential of each seed tucked away within the blossom.
Just a few blooms can produce enough seeds for my entire next year’s garden
With SO many to spare!
How easy is it to undervalue our potential,
Our gifts and skills and efforts and experiences.
Especially as we learn and grow and develop new skills,
Whose freshness and beauty outshine our old ones.
It can be all too easy to cast aside what once served us
To make room for the new.
What if we continued to cultivate them,
Appreciate them, remember we have them,
Knowing that there will be a time
When they’re most needed -
And we can share them generously with others?
What if we finish those on demand courses we started
And integrate what we’ve learned into our lives
Before signing up for the next shiny thing?
What if we finally realize the answers aren’t outside of ourselves,
But that we have everything within us to bloom and grow forever?
And that our most important work in this life is to keep growing,
Keep spreading our seeds,
Keep making the world a more beautiful place?
What would change for us?
How much good could we reap from what we sow?
How much impact could we have?
Journaling can be the tool that helps us make this happen -
How we recognize and celebrate our progress
How we let what’s good inside us shine
How we integrate what we learn
How we discover our potential
How we honor the magic we carry within
How we ensure we live true to who we are
How we reflect on how we can make an impact
It can be the best gift we give ourselves every single day.
(And, yes, everyone I know and like IS getting zinnia seeds for the holidays this year - and probably every year moving forward!)
Journal Prompts:
Use these prompts as written or as inspiration to uncover what you need in your life this week. And know that I’m always here to support you and answer questions you have along the way!
What potential are you hiding away?
What steps can you take to uncover your potential?
How can you start living your potential?
Who needs you to show up and be your most beautiful?
What impact can you have as you share your gifts with abundance?
One Fun Journaling Idea
Give Yourself a Grade
Use your journal to focus on the areas of your life you want to improve.
Identify the specific areas you want to focus on improving.
Each night, reflect on how you did that day in each area.
Give yourself a grade and note what went well and where you can improve.
Over time, you should be able to chart your progress.
Be sure to give yourself a lot of encouragement and grace!
FREE Stuff!
It’s another journaling livestream this week. Bring your journal and journal with me! Tune in on Tuesday at 8pm Eastern on LinkedIn, YouTube, or Facebook.
Podcast Drop: My guest episode of the GAIM ON podcast about journaling is out! While I don’t always listen to my own episodes, I’m really proud of this one. If you can listen and NOT walk away excited to journal, I don’t think we can be friends anymore! 😂 Listen HERE!
Work with Me!
Does your journaling practice need a little jumpstart so you can really see the benefits in your life? Join me on Thursday, September 28 at 7pm Eastern for an interactive workshop: 3 Simple Ways to Jumpstart Your Journaling. You’ll walk away with:
✍ A comprehensive understanding of the benefits of journaling
✍ Hands-on experience with three different journaling techniques
✍ And the skills to put them together to confidently create a journaling practice that you love
$27 registration includes the recording. Register HERE.Registration for The Journaling for Growth Membership Program is open! Each month we’ll write our way to a life we love by journaling through a different topic. With curated prompts and weekly group sessions, this program gives you the variety of tools you need to uplevel your journaling to learn and grow. October’s topic is Money Mindset. Join now for just $97/month.
Interested in working with me in some other way? Let’s hop on a call to discuss what that could look like!
Happy Journaling!
Beautiful: And that our most important work in this life is to keep growing,
Keep spreading our seeds,
Keep making the world a more beautiful place?
Love it! I don't have enough sunshine for zinnias though.