One beautiful spring day I invited my mother to come to see the daffodils before they disappeared for the season. As we headed out on our excursion, we drove down a small gravel road where we saw a small church. On the far side of the church, we saw a hand-lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden."
Before us lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic swirling patterns, with great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five majestic acres of flowers.
"Who did this?" my mother asked.
"Just one woman," I answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." I pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and sitting modestly in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house and on the patio we saw a sign.
"Answers to the questions I know you are asking," was the headline.
"50,000 bulbs, one at a time, by one woman, two hands, two feet, and one brain." The last answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met; who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.
The lesson that this daffodil garden teaches is one of life’s greatest principles; learning to move toward our vision, goals, and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to appreciate to use the accumulation of time, as one of our daily tools. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. As one person you too can change the world. Imagine the results with your whole team.
"It makes me sad in a way," my mother said. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it one bulb at a time through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
"Well, start tomorrow," I said.
Unlike this story, we don’t have the luxury of 30-40 years to transform our organizations, or to develop our people. Ask yourself:
Perhaps your answers to the above questions resemble the following:
There is likely more work for you to do in this arena in any case. Similar to the planter in this story, we too need to have a vision, a strategic plan, the talent to accomplish the goals, the ability to execute one step at a time, and the tenacity and to stay the course and not give up.
We at Vision Quest Consulting are experts in developing strong corporate leadership talent. Maybe we can help you build the talent landscape you desire.
Well, start today not tomorrow! Procrastination is not a solution.
Excerpts taken from the Daffodil Principle author Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards
Leadership Coaching Newsletter is written and produced by Wendy Capland. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to: wcapland@visionquestconsulting.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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