Ali Brown is a business coach and has created a remarkable business. It’s very clear that she has worked very hard and has both, created opportunities for herself, and taken advantage of many opportunities that were offered her. During Ali’s SHINE event in Dallas she taught a session about the importance of taking advantage of opportunities that are offered to you and moving out of fear. For the most part I think Ali was right, but there is something she said that is making me uncomfortable and I wanted to share it with you.
Ali used a farming analogy and spoke about planting 
all of the seeds (or taking advantage of all of the opportunities) you have because you never know where they will lead. On the surface this makes a lot of sense because if you don’t plant them, they can’t grow but here’s the thing that’s been nagging at me.
Continuing with the farming analogy, imagine what would happen if you plant every seed (or take advantage of all the opportunities). The way I see it is one of two things happen…
You have lots of seeds, so you plant them in a nice big field. Every day you wake up and try to tend to each plant. You start at plant #1 and work like crazy but no matter what you do, you simply can’t get to them all.
Or maybe you realize that you can’t spread yourself out like that so you plant them in a nice compact piece of land. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work either, you end up over-planting and crowding the seeds so nothing grows.
The precious seeds you’ve put in the ground need space, care and nutrients. When you look at this in terms of the opportunities you decide to pursue that means your time, attention and energy. Without this they will not grow or develop.
When you try to plant every seed (or follow every opportunity or idea) it doesn’t work. You end up exhausted, frustrated and defeated. Even though the opportunities you planted were good ones most won’t pan out for you. You end up left wondering, why haven’t you been able to create the programs and products you wanted? Why haven’t you been able to attract the clients you were hoping to attract? Why haven’t you been able to generate the revenue you wanted to achieve? It’s because you’ve planted too much.
So what do you do with all the seeds (or opportunities) that you gather or that are presented to you?
Here’s my suggestion…plant seeds, but make sure that the seeds you plant are the seeds you want to plant, and that you are willing to put in the time, attention and energy that they require. Just because something is available for you, even if it is a good opportunity doesn’t mean that you need to do it.
And how do you figure out which seeds to plant? Here are two of questions that my clients and I use to consider which seeds to plant and which to leave for another growing season.
1. If I do this what won’t I be able to do?
2. If I don’t do this what can I do?
Take a look at all of the opportunities that you have in front of you right now. Which ones are you going to plant? I’d love to know, won’t you share it with me?
Excellent food for thought. I’m a new business owner and I’ve struggled with determining the right direction to take in order to get more clients. Based on your post, I’ve thought about 2 opportunities in front of me that I can begin to nurture in order to make them profitable. I now need to implement a system that makes these opportunities into solid clients.
Sonya, I’m so glad that this post helped you! The key is to keep your eye on these opportunities and keep on nurturing them. The system comes out of taking the time to really think about what you want and what specific steps you want to take to get you there oh and of course being flexible along the way.
Can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Carrie
Say no to the good to say yes to the great!
Exactly Jane!
I have been a professional organizer for more than 7 years and most recently decided to add a product line to my business. It would involve in-home parties, direct sales, vendor events, and a downline. I wanted to provide my clients with more organizing tools and do in-home educational based parties. I feel like I planted a very large seed and figured I would give it a try to see if it is something that works for me and my goals. I think sometimes you just have to try something to see if it was a good seed to plant. I am concerned about the time it will take to make this portion of my business sucessful and yet not take away from the service end of my business. Time will tell!
I took have struggled for years transitioning out of education into entreprenueral calling as a content creator. I’ve done exactly what you referred to…planted too much at once. Now, I’m faced again with having to supplement my business development with part time job which at first felt frustrating or even like failure but now I’m looking at it as leverage and an investment all around.
When I was financially vulnerable, I found myself prey to opportunistic people or marketers. But once I took 100% responsibility and went to God and humbled myself, repented and stopped leaning on my own understanding and acknowledged Him..He made a way of escape.
As a former Chef, I’ve decided to take a part time job with a local bank that emphasis hospitality as a customer relations strategy while I continue my online trainings to develope my public speaking business and coaching practice helping women make career transitions through transformational nutrition.
Thank you for this article. It was very helpful. As a Christ follower, I am so turned off by the Law of attraction. Jesus is the Law of Grace which is beautifully attractive!