Watering Dead Plants

One fine sunny day while I was mowing my lawn I noticed my neighbor watering their lawn and decorative plants with their water hose. Interestingly and to my amazement they began to water, rather liberally, a plant that was dead and was going to remain dead, no matter how much water they dedicated to the dead plant. The plant was dead. Their good intentions were not going to change anything except the wasting of their time and valuable resource, such as the water. They needed to accept the fact that the plant was dead and in order to make a positive impact they needed to pull the dead plant up by the roots, add some new soil and replace it with a living plant. Then they could water and make a lasting and positive impact. 

Business and life is sometimes like my neighbor. In business and in life we can dedicate time and valuable resources to activities that are dead or dying and need to die. Instead of taking a more beneficial approach by accepting the fact that the efforts, no matter how well intentioned, are not going to make a difference. And even if they did, just how much time and effort would we need to dedicate to   see if, in the end, our energies were well allocated. There are appropriate times that we all need to walk away from something and move on. The grass is not greener on the other side, the grass is greener where the grass is growing and gets watered at levels sufficient to give the grass the best opportunity to thrive. Dedicating time, energy and resources to anything that is not going to produce a positive result is bad enough but dedicating time, energy and resources to things that are dead or need to die will bring into question the quality of your judgement. Most often we continue doing these non productive activities because we inherited them or because we always have. Stop and consider if you are too close to the situation to make a reasonable and fair evaluation and if, after doing so, you come to the factual conclusion that you need to zoom out and take a look do so. The far away look may show that the dead activity is a waste of time and resources, you were simply too close to see it. Then you can replant, replace and replenish with the opportunity to produce more positive results.