This month, I ‘m multiplying value. As I study Scroll VIII, I’m seeing a number of interesting things as I compare myself to a grain of wheat. According to the scroll, there are three things that a grain of wheat can do. It can be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply. I have a choice. I can be fed to swine, ground to be devoured by others, or grow and multiply. The major difference between me and the grain of wheat? I can choose. So can you.
Think you can’t? Too much bad has happened in your life? Nope. Here’s what Og Mandino says about that. “To grow and multiply it is necessary to plant the wheat grain in the darkness of the earth and my failures, my despairs, my ignorance, and my inabilities are the darkness in which I have been planted in order to ripen.” All that bad stuff? Fertilizer for your growth. You could interpret this to mean that the more bad stuff that’s happened in your life, the more primed you are for richness and bearing fruit.
How? “Now, like the wheat grain which sprouts and blossoms only if it is nurtured with rain and sun and warm winds, I too must nurture my body and mind to fulfill my dreams.” You have the power to choose your destiny by setting objectives for your life. Then plan the years, months, weeks, days, and hours toward reaching those objectives.
A couple weeks ago, I discussed my Plan of Action (POA) card and some changes I made in it. This week, I went through my DMP and listed the key areas discussed that I haven’t actively planned — there are nine. Today, I began mapping out the POA to make those DMP areas a reality. One, traveling all major Amtrak routes by January 2025, looks like it will easily be completed by August 2018. I’m going to leave the later date just in case our plans have to change for any reason. In discussing this with my husband, we distilled it down to three trips. Until we studied the Amtrak timetable with this goal in mind, we didn’t have a clue when this would be feasible to make into a reality for us.
Planning is ongoing, but once the DMP was articulated, I didn’t know where to focus my efforts or where to look for creating a plan. I made progress on five of the nine areas today. Not bad for an initial effort. The tenth area has been my primary focus since beginning the course, and it continues to manifest, so I haven’t mentioned it here except for this. I’m not sure if I’ve used the spinning plate analogy here before, but it’s a common one in maintaining balance in life. The “tenth” area, which is really my primary focus, was the “plate” I had to get balanced and spinning first. I’ll continue to work in the other “plates” as long as I can keep the primary one spinning smoothly.
Everything worthwhile in time takes time and effort. I’m pleased to apply the skills I’ve learned in the Master Keys course. How is this multiplying value? I’m trusting the process, because, honestly, I’m not sure right now.
Jean, You astound me, and I am humbled in your presence. That you have kept your blog up to date, well…it’s an awesome read. You inspire me, I know some of the plates you have spinning. I guess this last few weeks I have been ground to dust! So I will make the best of it, make bread this week maybe, and plant wheat for tomorrow’s harvest!
Thank you, Marj. Blogging is easy for me. I know it’s more challenging for some others, but I know they have gifts that astound me (and they think what they do is easy for them). I think I’ve been flour more often than I’d like to think. I am contemplating increasing value as well as just what value means. It’s becoming more complex the more I think about it.
I love your process, Jean. It’s given me some ideas. Great job!