Several years ago, my then four-year-old son and I planted a
garden. Due to life events, it was two
months before he was able to see the garden again. In our absence, it grew. He was amazed at how big the plants grew
while we were away.
In a lot of ways we are a lot like plants. If we aren’t growing, we are withering. My schedule is such that I’ve gone several weeks
without doing some things on twitter. The
#FF and #WW that mention me all but stopped.
If I go through and name folks and do my part, my name came up more often. But once I stopped, my influence diminished.
Going to a social function is a lot the same. If I stand back and watch, I am just that - on
the sideline watching. If I wait for
someone to come up and start a conversation, I may find myself waiting a long,
long time. If I reach out to someone and
take the initiative to shake a hand and start a discussion, I become engaged
and have a great time.
The old adage, “You have to be a friend to have friends.” Is
so true.
Bottom line is this, if you are not growing and reaching
out, you are withering and diminishing.
What observations do you have? What do you do to reach out and grow?
3 comments:
Great way to put that into perspective Dean. As always great post! It's all about making sure you're growing and not on the sideline withering. Thanks!
You're welcome Em. That has been on my mind for a few weeks. I wanted to make the post longer, but in this case I thought less is more.
I'm an introvert by nature, so going out into the sunlight at parties and such is very intimidating. But you are very right - I've found, as a writer, that by making my friends my writing life has grown. Through these friendships I was able to create the BRoP, I've come in the way of more opportunities (friends love to tell friends about agent contests, requests for submissions, etc.). Connection to others is our sunlight and water - it's definately easier to grow when you have them! :-) Great post Dean!
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