PURPOSEFUL HUSTLE BLOG

One of the big things I’ve discussed this month is how to make more time to be in your Purposeful Hustle. We've already talked about two techniques earlier this month, but the one that I want to share with you today is from the garden.

I am not a gardener -- I do not have a green thumb just yet but I'm very proud to say that every year I get better at getting things in the ground to come up and live!  I've been walking around the neighborhood taking pictures of other people's yards and today, I was excited where I could go outside and plant.

But when I got outside, I realized I'd forgotten about the number one step that you have to do when you're gardening:  removing all of the weeds. How does this have anything to do with making more time as a Purposeful Hustler?

weeding the distractions out of your calendar

When you try to live in your Purposeful Hustle, one of the number one ways that you can get more time back is by taking the weeds out or in other words, taking out the things in your life that don't need to be there.

These “weeds” get in the way of letting your purpose grow. One of the number one ways that you can get more time is by weeding through what's happening in your life right now and what is taking your energy right now and figuring out how you take out those things that are no longer aligned with your purpose.

which one to remove?

You might wonder, ‘how do I know what to take out?’ I look at what is going on in my life and at my obligations, events on my calendar and I ask myself a very simple question:  is this item aligned with my purpose?

For all of you who follow this blog, you know my purpose is to shift power to marginalized communities. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed or whenever I'm having a hard time finding room on my schedule, I go through my task list and calendar and I say, ‘is this thing aligned to purpose?’ If it is, it stays there. If not, I have to remove it.

It's the same idea for a garden. When you're looking at your garden, you want to find the plants that are flourishing, thriving, and growing.  If you keep the weeds in (the bad stuff that inhibits growth of beneficial plants), then the garden can’t grow the way it should.

wait and see

The other question that I get all of the time is, well how do I know if it’s within my purpose or not?  Sometimes, we need things to mature. We need to understand how they're going to grow and if they're going to grow.  We need to try things out. I love trying things out; I like to experiment so sometimes I can't answer the question, ‘is this aligned with my purpose or not?’ It's too early!

Today when I was weeding the garden, I was trying to figure out if a plant was a flower or weed.  I didn’t know enough yet to be able to tell the difference so I decided to wait a couple of weeks to find out.

I clearly put a definitive date to determine if I should pull the weed or not.  This is the same with your purpose.  If you are looking at the things that are going on in your life and you are unable to determine if it is purpose-aligned then wait – just make sure to give yourself a definitive time. Waiting and seeing is totally okay, but you have to give it a deadline because otherwise it can turn into really strongly rooted weeds.

Hopefully this little analogy about growing things and about how weeds work in gardens will be something you think about as you apply it to your own calendar and to your own task list as your start trying to find time.