The Best time to Plant a Tree - Finding motivation in challenging times

How to Find Motivation in difficult times

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

I had this saying wrong. I thought it was: “The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is now”. But it came in very handy when I was explaining the importance of the quote. Even though I got it wrong (which makes me feel like my mother.)

The benefit of getting it wrong actually helped me to understand the real crux of the quote.

When you fuck up. As we do. Often. And you wake up from a 10 year drug / drunken filled haze, full of regret, sorrow, self-pity and repeats of ‘why have I wasted so much time??!!’ (Fill in your own regret / moment of realisation above.)

Stop.

Because although the best time to start getting your shit together was 10 years ago, the second best time is now.

Stop the blame game. Stop the self pity. Get a pen and paper and write it down. “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now”…

Plan your future

What do you want? Write it down. How to you get it? Write it down. What steps do you need to take? Write it down. What do you need to do this month? Write it down. What do you need to do this week? Write it down. What do you need to do today? Write it down. And what do you need to do within the next hour? Write it down. What might get in the way? Write this down. How will you manage this? Write it down. What will you do if you fuck up again? Write this down.

Put it on paper. Recite the mantra. “The best time to get your shit together was 20 years ago. The second time is now”. Start today. Visusalise the outcome. Visualise all the steps you took to get there. Visualise you overcoming the challenges, side-stepping the obstacles. Plan for the possible pitfalls.

And start today. Plant a tree.